Colonial Despatches

Sointula is a community on Malcolm Island, just off the northeastern shore of Vancouver Island, across from Port McNeill.

In 1901, Finnish settlers attempted to set up a socialist colony, and received a provincial land grant to do so.1 The colony peaked at a population of roughly 2000, which dissolved until its demise in 1905; nevertheless, many colonists remained, and today, the community has a trace of its Finnish roots, albeit at the reduced population of around 700 permanent residents.2

• 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Placenames (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 555.
• 2. Ibid.