New immigrants who remained in Canada were also disproportionately affected by domestic eugenics programs. In the West, this was particularly true of sterilization programs.

The only two provinces in Canada to pass formal sterilization legislation were Alberta and British Columbia; both provinces were settled somewhat later than the Eastern provinces and by a significantly higher percentage of recent immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe (Wayland 1997, 39).

This legislation was most vigorously implemented in Alberta: between the passage of the Sexual Sterilization Act in 1928 and its repealing in 1972, the Eugenics Board ordered the sterilization of 2,832 individuals. Members of visible ethnic minorities, like Aboriginal Canadians, as well as recent Eastern European immigrants, were over-represented amongst those sterilized (Caulfield 1996, 61; Grekul et al. 2004, 365).

By contrast, the German-American Bund mustered only about 30,000 members and was made up primarily of first- or second-generation German-Americans who still harbored national sympathies for Germany.

The Second Klan and the German-American Bund fundamentally clashed due to stark ideological and cultural differences. The Klan, deeply rooted in Anglo-American nativism, dating back to the Mayflower, sought to preserve a specifically Anglo-Saxon Protestant identity for America and viewed groups like German-Americans—particularly those who maintained strong ethnic ties—as unassimilated foreigners.

The Klan feared that German-Americans, particularly those sympathetic to Nazi ideology, would pose a threat to American unity and loyalty, especially during the interwar period and World War II. The German-American Bund, on the other hand, was overtly pro-German and admired Nazi Germany, cultivating a Germanic, imperial identity that was foreign and un-American to the Klan.

The Klan’s vision of America was steeped in American revolutionary ideals and Protestant values, while the Bund sought to foster ties with a European-centered, global agenda, creating a rift between the two groups. This cultural and ideological divide was further fueled by the Bund’s use of foreign symbols and the Klan’s desire to maintain a homogenous, Anglo-Saxon Protestant America free from external ethnic loyalties of any kind.

Canada was a young country and predominantly Anglo-Saxon at this time, and was still developing its national identity and place in the British Empire. Many Anglo-Saxon Canadians believed that Canada was committing ‘race suicide’ by letting a rising number of ‘others’ into the country (Dowbiggin 1995, 607). This fear was compounded by the fact that new immigrants continued to attend ‘Old World’ churches and speak their native languages, raising fears that they were not assimilating to a Canadian way of life

The visibility of new immigrants, and the racial antipathy felt towards them by many native-born Canadians, “provided a ready vehicle for popularizing the sterilization proposal” (Caulfield 1996, 70), which was zealously implemented in Alberta. It did not take long for advocates of eugenics to forward theories asserting that Asia and Eastern Europe offered inferior contributions to the country’s gene pool. For example, J. S. Woodsworth, a key member of the Bureau of Social Research (created by the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba to investigate the connections between various social issues) warned that “the declining ‘quality’ of European immigrants [would] translate to a public health crisis” (Grekul et al. 2004, 361) (also see Woodworth 1909).

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We have in our country the patriotism of Ontarians, the patriotism of Quebecers and the patriotism of westerners. But there will not be a Canadian nation as long as we do not have a Canadian patriotism.

You must believe in Canada.

The Second Klan movement, was not particularly fond of the Nazis or the German-American Bund, and vice versa, despite on the surface appearing to share views. It was, however, far more successful and influential in the United States as an ethnic nationalist, Protestant, Anglo-American movement.

The Second Klan boasted nearly 5 million members nationwide. It was distinct from the First Klan and differed greatly from the Third Klan in that it was extremely popular, well organized, and did not engage in criminal vigilantism.

It expanded its focus from African Americans and Reconstruction in the South to include all foreigners, such as Catholic Irish, the Ashkenazi diaspora from Eastern Europe, unassimilated Germans, and Eastern and Southern Europeans more broadly.

The Second Klan's influence was strong enough to pressure President Calvin Coolidge to pass the 1924 Immigration Act, motivated by fears that they were being replaced and displaced in some regions. This succeeded in preserving the Northwestern European majority of the United States, at the cost of accepting a large number of Germans.

For instance, the American Midwest was once predominantly Anglo-American before it became German-American. The Second Klan also had the support of white-collar professionals, Protestant ministers, and Anglo-American elites through the early 1900s up to the 1920s.

Two races share today the soil of Canada. English and French. These people had not always been friends. But I hasten to say it. There is no longer any family here but the human family. It matters not the language they speak, nor the altars at which they kneel.

It is better to demonstrate that the small group of our ancestors possesses a great strength: its perfect homogeneity. Ethnic, social, religious, moral homogeneity, intrinsic value—nothing is lacking to constitute an elite nucleus.