“Canada’s first boat people were the Norse who came ashore a thousand years ago in Newfoundland.”
Read the rest of Michael Valpy’s article on the boat people here. There are some errors of historical fact in it, as you would expect in a newspaper article, but his basic message is a sound one.
The Past Speaks 
While perhaps not exclusively by boat, wasn’t there some water crossing involved in the first human migrations to the Americas?
Good point. Moreover, the First Nations moved around a fair bit and could be imperialist in their own way!