Around Swedish America in 
Day 7 - Sointula
If you are going to take the BC Ferries north from Port Hardy at the top of Vancouver island, there is one other place you must visit first. The village of Sointula on Malcolm Island is more Finnish than Swedish, but there are also many Swedes that have settled there. Sointula feels Scandinavian through and through and it has such an intriguing history that you can simply not miss a visit. From Port McNeill it is only a quick ferry ride to Sointula (that can also be combined with a visit to the First Nation centre at Alert Bay).
Sointula means "harmony" in Finnish and the utopian colony was the dream of a group of unhappy Nanaimo miners. They had originally emigrated from Finland away from Czarish Russian oppression only to fall under the oppression of the coal "millionaire and skinner of men" James Dunsmuir. To fulfill their dream the group recruited the socialist organizer Matti Kurikka. In Finland he had worked as a journalist and playwright and was very active politically. He was as fascinated by Tolstoy and the women’s equality movement as he was opposed to the Lutheran Church. Kurikka arrived to Nanaimo in the Fall of 1900 after a failed attempt to create an utopian settlement for some 180 Finns in Queensland in Australia. It never came off the ground. In Canada Kurikka negotiated a 28 000 acre lease of land on Malcolm Island from the B.C. government. At the same time he also managed to talk the Finns into funding a newspaper, the first printed Finnish-language newspaper in Canada. The editor and main writer of "Aika" was of course Kurikka. The paper soon had subscribers in both the United States, Finland and Australia and eagerly promoted Kurikka’s latest utopia, Sointula.
To help with "Aika" and the settling of Sointula, Austin Makela, a marxist and old friend of Kurikka’s arrived from Finland. History has it that while Kurikka had the charisma and ideas, his dreaming and money squandering almost wiped out Sointula in less than 2 years. Makela, on the other hand, was a decisive and methodical man and sincerely wanted the community to advance and grow. A nasty fire struck the village in 1903. At the same time Kurikka practically bankrupted the colony, by bidding far too low on a contract to build two bridges in North Vancouver, with Sointulan workers and prime island lumber. When the leader’s increasing preaching of "free love" caused Makela to suspect that his wife had an affair with Kurikka, things came to an end and Kurikka resigned. Makela took over the leadership and was the "godfather" of Sointula until his death there in 1932. As a romantic utopia Sointula lasted a mere 3 years. But the settlers who stayed had a sincere interest in the labour movement and its benefits for a harmonious society and they made Sointula’s dubious reputation as a "grassroots communist centre" last well into the 1940’s. You can read more about Sointula's fascinating history in Paula Wild’s "Sointula, Island Utopia", which is a thorough account by a former Malcolm Island resident, filled with interesting photographs.
And what about Matti Kurikka? He returned to Finland after the Sointula fiasco (and another unsuccessful all-male commune attempt in the Fraser Valley, close to Vancouver). In Helsinki lived Kurikka's first wife and daughter, and here the 43-year old Matti Kurikka married the 20-year younger Hanna Raivo. They had a daughter and moved to the United States where they homesteaded in Penker, Connecticut, where Kurikka in 1914 one day collapsed and died during work on his farm.