In 1942 the Winnipeg Icelandic Canadian Club approved a motion to establish a literary journal, to be called The Icelandic Canadian. The policy of the magazine as approved by the Club contained five clauses as follows:
- To assist in making the things of value in our Icelandic heritage a living part of ourselves as Canadian citizens and thus improve the quality of our contribution to the distinctively Canadian pattern.
- To provide an instrument by which the children of the ever increasing mixed marriages may be reached, and through which we would seek to instill in them a better knowledge and a keener appreciation of our heritage.
- To provide a means whereby Canadians of Icelandic extraction, pure and mixed, can become better acquainted with each other and thus strengthen the common bond of the past which in itself will strengthen the common bond of the future the larger Canadian scene.
- To stimulate greater effort by making known to our readers the contributions of Icelandic Canadians to the highest and best type of citizenship.
- To place before the people of Canada and particularly the other ethnic groups, our interpretation of the position we should take as Canadian citizens, and thus contribute to Canadian unity by helping to form a common basis of approach.