Between 1885, the French-speaking population accounted for one-third of the colonizing languages of Alberta communities and 60% in the northern part of the province. (It should be noted that there were a number of First Nations who could speak French, but census did not enumerate for language.) French lost a lot of vitality in the 30 years that followed, because Canada organized a massive influx of more than 3 million newcomers to the West. Between 1885 and 1921, Alberta grew from about 15,500 to almost 600,000 residents, while the Francophone population only grew from 2,000 to about 25,000. A very large number of Francophone newcomers were French Canadians who tried their luck in the industrial cities of New England and took the opportunity to settle again on farmland in French-speaking enclaves such as Saint-Albert, Vegreville, Plamondon, Morinville, Legal, Beaumont, Bonnyville, St. Paul, and so on. Another segment of the population left France and Belgium for the same reasons to settle in villages like Trochu and Bellevue.
