A brief historical overview of the Ukrainian Voice/ Український голос

 Established in 1910, the Ukrainian Voice (Ukraïnsʹkyĭ holos/ Український голос) was initially established as a vehicle for enlightenment and to allow this to spread to school districts where there were no Ukrainian teachers. The paper was fully dedicated to the interests of Ukrainian settlers. The decision to publish such a paper was made at the Ukrainian teachers' convention in 1908. The publishing company (Trident Press), founded on shares sold to only Ukrainians, was founded in 1909 and the first edition of the Ukrainian Voice printed in 1910. The first editor was Wasyl Kudryk and the first Manager was T.D. Ferley.

Since its beginning the Ukrainian Voice has been highly valued source of information for the Ukrainian immigrant families. Later the paper became a mechanism for helping organize the Ukrainian community and in particular the Ukrainian Orthodox community. The paper became invaluable in informing its readership on political, social, religious and other matters.

The Ukrainian Voice helped reawaken the national consciousness of the Ukrainian Canadian community and also provided leadership and encouragement for them to participate fully in Canadian politics and to take full advantage of the educational opportunities. It reached out to all corners of Canada wherever Ukrainians lived and taught them a better way of life, both as Ukrainians and as Canadians.

The Ukrainian Voice took an active role in community life. Shortly after its formation, the Ukrainian Voice played a pivotal role in the formation of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada (later renamed as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada). It published The Herald/Visnyk for the UGOCC, at no cost, for around a decade.

The paper ran as a Ukrainian-language weekly for years, until federal bilingual legislation required it to include some English-language content.

The success and impact of the Ukrainian Voice was enormous. At one time it has 22,000 subscribers. In 1981 it absorbed the Канадійський фармер newspaper.

Due to declining readership, the Ukrainian Voice ceased operations in 2018. The last editor, of the newspaper, for 23 years was Maria Bosak.

Trident donated the paper’s archives to St. Andrew’s College at the University of Manitoba, with plans to digitize the documents and make them available to the public.

The Main Street storefront (Ukrainian Voice/Trident Press) that housed the newspaper is being salvaged but will relocate to McGregor Street. Trident Press operates a shipping service for parcels to Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Moldova, Russia and the Baltic states.

'21-03-29