In Canada, this tension was amplified by the fact that the first two waves of Ukrainian immigration were, in general, less educated that the post-war group. Also the first wave, and many in the second wave never experience Ukrainian statehood, with the increased nationalism the engendered. Believe it or not, there are books printed in Canada (Winnipeg) in Ukrainian expressed in Latin characters, generally following the Polish spelling practices. There was just much less of a sense that the language was culturally important to preserve; it was preserved more as a "mother's knee" experience that a formal determination. It is also very important that the first wave suffered much greater discrimination than later, and thus their children were under pressure to fit it, speak English.

Studies at the time Canada officially adopted multiculturalism identified a patter of 2nd generation loosing identity, and 3rd being proud, but by then the language was largely gone, leaving food and church.