Creating KashubiaIn recent years, over one million Canadians have claimed Polish heritage a significant population increase since the first group of Poles came from Prussian occupied Poland and settled in Wilno, Ontario, west of Ottawa in 1858. For over a century, descendants from this community thought of themselves as Polish, but this began to change in the 1980s due to the work of a descendant priest who emphasized the communitys origins in Polands Kashubia region.