These are the words of a song composed by Mathilda Plamondon, matriarch of the family that in 1908 founded the village of Plamondon in northeastern Alberta. Although light-hearted and even a little humorous, this song is a testimonial that allows us to imagine certain aspects of life in these new communities.

The story of this family – and, by extension, of this village – was linked to the remarkable mobility of French Canadians from the 1850s to the 1920s. During this period, over a million of them left the St. Lawrence Valley to earn a better living, forming a diaspora of continental proportions. Everywhere – from the industrial cities of New England to the settlements of Western Canada, from the farming villages of the American Midwest to the railroads of Northern Ontario – these migrants brought with them their language, culture, and traditions.

Some families even moved several times over several generations. Such was the case for Mathilda’s husband Joseph. In 1867, while a young child, he left Quebec for Michigan with his parents. As an adult, he managed to lead a fairly comfortable life in Michigan: he had a large farm, where he raised a family of nine children, all of whom attended a Catholic school, of which he was one of the trustees.

However, at the turn of the 20th^. century, faced with repeated invitations from the Canadian government, the Catholic clergy, and the colonization companies, who were recruiting Franco-Americans to populate the Canadian West, the man affectionately known as “Father Joe” couldn’t resist the call. In 1908, at the age of 47, he and his family moved nearly 3,000 kilometres to create a village where they could “perpetuate the French-Canadian language and culture” (Cadrin and Dubé, p. 96). The Plamondons and their neighbours succeeded, notably by allying themselves with the local Métis community and welcoming new French-speaking migrants from Eastern Europe.

Joseph had won his bet, but as the song says, it would not be without leaving his two eldest daughters in Michigan... nor without giving his wife a taste for travel.