In the 1840s, Canada West experienced an influx of German[a] immigrants who left Europe due to social and political upheaval.

As most new immigrants were artisans rather than farmers, readers demanded German prose and poetry, and the newspaper supplemented its political coverage with literary content.

In 1859, the head of the Canadier's mechanical department, Friedrich Rittinger [de], abruptly left the newspaper to found the competing Berliner Journal.

[5] In 1835, Heinrich Wilhelm Peterson[b] established Canada Museum und Allgemeine Zeitung in the hamlet of Berlin, Waterloo Township.

[9] The newspaper ran pieces advocating for Berlin to be the township's "district town",[9] while subscribers hoped it would help to preserve their language and traditional values.

[14] Heinrich Eby founded Der Deutsche Canadier und Neuigkeitsbote (The German Canadian and News Messenger)[15] in January 1841, serving as its first publisher and owner.

[18] In Der Morgenstern's final issue, dated 16 September 1841, its proprietor, Benjamin Burkholder, recommended readers subscribe to the Canadier.

Elias served a broader audience through publishing an English language newspaper as well, the Berlin Telegraph and Waterloo County Intelligencer, from 1853 to 1899.

The most significant shock to the Canadier came when the head of its mechanical department, Friedrich Rittinger [de], left in 1859 to found the competing Berliner Journal with John Motz.

[30] In its written vocabulary, the newspaper occasionally used words from the local Pennsylvania German language,[24] including "Flauer" (flour) and "Klertsche" (clergy), amongst others.

[24] The Canadier published an extra edition in March 1848 covering the revolutions in Europe, which Kalbfleisch suggests indicates how interested the readership remained in European news.

[39] Kalbfleisch suggests the coverage of Canadian politics was framed in a way to encourage recent German immigrants to abandon "their lethargy toward public affairs which had characterized the behavior of many of them in the fatherland".

[42] The Canadier, however, was consistently partisan through all of its owners and editors,[34] vehemently arguing for the Reform Party and describing the Tories as dishonest and corrupt.

[45] In December 1863, McDougall was proposed to be the county registrar of deeds, with the Journal strongly opposing the nomination and suggesting the "honest man" A. J. Peterson in his place.

[44] As recent German immigrants were mostly made up of artisans rather than farmers, the readers of the Canadier demanded poetry and prose content,[34] pushing the paper to maintain "a high literary tone".