Sointula Finns

The Sointula Finns (Finn. Sointulalaiset) were a unique group of Finns that had left Finland to create a "utopia" for themselves on Malcolm Island, a small island in British Columbia, Canada that was a five-kilometre ferry trip away from Vancouver Island. Although there were many other communities of Finns throughout North America, Sointula would be the only true Finnish colony per se.

Although the utopia eventually (for all intents and purposes) failed, the Finnish community remained, and developed a rather unique dialect of Finnish as well as a unique culture. Even as Canada became something of a melting pot of cultures, the Sointula Finns held down the fort.

During the Uralic Purges of 2007, however, these Finns were up in arms, and eventually one of them, Jarkko Salomäki (who had spent the past decade of his life outside of Sointula) would move to Syktyvkar and be instrumental in the foundation of Uralica, a nation where all 1500 or so extant Sointula Finns at the time would move to.

Most Sointula Finns now live in a borough of Syktyvkar named after their original hometown.