With the opening of the twentieth century, the prohibition movement gained momentum. This was partly the result of a new wave of immigration, much of it from eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Asia. Not all of the newcomers were welcome. There was a popular prejudice that these people were intellectually and morally inferior to Canadians. Protestants had made similar objections to Irish Catholic immigrants in the nineteenth century. Prominent clergymen and politicians urged that those permitted to enter Canada be expected to adopt habits in keeping with the "highest" Canadian standards. To prohibitionists that meant abstaining from alcohol; thus the increased pressure to prohibit alcohol across Canada.
