Final answer:
Canadian immigration historically favored European white immigrants with strict policies against Blacks and Asians, exemplified by the head tax on Chinese immigrants and preference for European nationalities via quota systems.
Step-by-step explanation:
Historically, Canadian immigration policy was marked by racial restrictions designed to curate a specific demographic landscape within the country. During the period before World War I, immigration was predominantly European and white, while official government policy largely excluded Asians and Blacks. Fewer than a thousand immigrants were Black between 1896 and 1912, illustrating the stark disparities in acceptance rates.
Canada's approach to Asian immigrants was similarly restrictive. Though not outright banning Asian immigration like the United States did with the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Johnson-Reed Act, Canada imposed a head tax on Chinese immigrants in 1885, which was later increased, effectively discouraging Chinese immigration.
Furthermore, during the migration of large numbers of people in the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States, Canada, and Australia took active steps to prohibit Asian migration, and the United States worked to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe. This included the use of quota systems that heavily favored northern and western Europeans while restricting others based on the proportion of their nationality already present within the country.