Canada ::: Project ETERNITY

Canada is the second largest and the northern-most country in the world, occupying most of the North American land mass. It is a decentralized federation of ten provinces and three territories, governed as a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. It was initially constituted through the British North America Act of 1867 and styled The Dominion of Canada.

Canada's capital is Ottawa, home of the nation's Parliament, as well as the residences of the Governor General of Canada (who exercises the personal prerogatives delegated by Queen Elizabeth II, Canada's formal head of state) and the Prime Minister (the head of government).

Originally a union of former French and British colonies, Canada is a Commonwealth Realm, and a member of both La Francophonie and the Commonwealth of Nations. Canada is officially bilingual, with French widely spoken in the eastern provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, in Eastern Ontario and in specific communities throughout the West. English is the majority language elsewhere. Parliament mainly comprises members of four main political parties.

Canada is a technologically advanced and industrialized nation, largely self-sufficient in energy due to its relatively large deposits of fossil fuels, nuclear energy generation, and hydroelectric power capabilities. Its economy has traditionally relied heavily on the abundance of natural resources and trade, particularly with the United States, with which it has a long, extensive relationship. Although the modern Canadian economy has become widely diversified, exploitation of natural resources remains an important driving force of many regional economies.

Name

History

Canada, which has been inhabited by aboriginal peoples, known in Canada as the First Nations, for at least 10,000 years, was first visited by Europeans around 1000, when the Vikings briefly settled at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. More permanent European visits came in the 16th and 17th century, as the French settled there.

At the end of the Seven Years' War by the Treaty of Paris (1763), France surrendered her huge North American empire. She kept only some Caribbean islands, and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon as bases for her Atlantic fishing rights. Her other domains – Acadia to the Appalachians, all French Canada west beyond that, plus the Ohio and Illinois country and all the lands east of the Mississippi – passed into British possession; while Spain was given France's Louisiana territories west of the Mississippi. New France had disappeared.

After the American Revolution, many British Loyalists settled in Canada.

On July 1, 1867, with the passing of the British North America Act, the British government granted a Constitution to a federation of four provinces formed from three of its North American colonies, Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The former Province (colony) of Canada formed two provinces of the new Dominion of Canada, being partitioned into Quebec and Ontario along the old boundary between Lower and Upper Canada. The term Confederation refers to this act of union and is often used for the resulting federation.

Other British colonies and territories soon joined Confederation: by 1880 Canada included all of its present area except for Newfoundland and Labrador (which joined in 1949). Full control over the Dominion's affairs officially came in 1931 with the Statute of Westminster, and in 1982 with the patriation of Canada's constitution.

As tensions between English and French Canadians prevented agreement on the new capital, Queen Victoria chose the centrally-located Ottawa. This compromise was similar to one that resulted in the creation of Washington as the US capitol to appease Northerners and Southerners.

In the second half of the 20th century, some citizens of the mainly French-speaking province of Quebec sought independence in two referendums held in 1980 and 1995. In both referendums, the separatist cause, led by the Parti Québécois, was defeated with 60% and 50.6% opposed to independence, respectively. Although the separatist movement has waned in recent years, many consider another referendum to be inevitable.

Geography

Canada is the world's second-largest country in total area, after Russia. However, it has an extremely low population density of 3.2 people per square kilometre. Eighty percent of Canadians live within 200 km of the United States along the International Boundary, where the country's most temperate climates are located. While Canada covers a larger geographic area than its neighbour, it has only one-ninth of the population. Canada's vast and rich territory has led to a historical economic dependence on its natural resources.

The most densely-populated part of the country is the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence River Valley in the east. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and gouged with lakes and rivers— over 60 percent of the world's lakes are located in Canada. The Canadian Shield encircles the immense Hudson Bay.

The Canadian Shield extends to the Atlantic Coast in Labrador, the mainland part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The island of Newfoundland, Canada's easternmost region, is at the mouth of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. The Canadian Maritimes, the first region to be settled by Europeans, protrude eastward from the southern coast of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, sandwiched between the Gulf to the north and the Atlantic to the south. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, an arm of the Atlantic that experiences the world's largest tidal variations.

To the west of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread towards the Rocky Mountains, which divide the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Southern British Columbia enjoys a very temperate climate with much milder winters than the rest of the country.

Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the largest islands on Earth.

Canada has a reputation for cold temperatures. Indeed, the winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, with risks of blizzards and ice storms and temperatures reaching lows of -50°C in the far North. (Southwestern British Columbia is a well-known exception.) In the most densely populated regions, summers range from mild to quite hot, attaining highs of well over 30°C in Montreal and 15°C even in Iqaluit, Nunavut. In Vancouver, temperatures usually remain stable at around 5-25°C year round, whereas in Calgary they can drop to -30°C in the winter and attain a high of 30°C in the summer. In the great lakes region, the most heavily populated area in the country, temperatures can range from -30°C to 35°C. The country experiences four distinct seasons.

Politics

Federal government

Canada is a federation under a system of parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. Its sovereign is the monarch Queen Elizabeth II (who is Canada's Head of State) with the title of Queen of Canada. The Head of State prerogatives are exercised by the Governor General who is generally a retired politician or other prominent Canadian appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada. The Governor General is a non-partisan figure who fills the role of providing Royal Assent to bills passed by the House of Commons and the Senate, reading the Speech from the Throne, signing state documents, formally opening and ending sessions of Parliament, and dissolving Parliament for an election. Both the Queen and the Governor General are primarily figureheads, with little real power as they almost always act on the advice of Canada's Head of Government, the Prime Minister, who is also the government party leader who controls such tools of governance as party discipline and patronage appointments.

The Governor General formally appoints the Prime Minister who is usually the leader of the political party that holds the most seats in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister in turn appoints the Cabinet drawn by convention from members of the Prime Minister's party in the House of Commons and the Senate. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and Cabinet, all of whose members are sworn into the Privy Council of Canada and become Ministers of the Crown.

The legislative branch of government, the Parliament, has two houses: the elected House of Commons and the appointed Senate (see individual articles for details). The Prime Minister calls elections for the House of Commons at his or her discretion, though they must occur no later than five years after the previous one. The federal parliament may only legislate in those areas assigned to it by the constitution.

Canada has three main national parties, the centrist Liberal Party of Canada, right-wing Conservative Party of Canada, and the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP). A regional party, the Bloc Québécois, holds many seats in Quebec; its agenda is separatist and primarily social-democratic. Smaller parties exist, but rarely have been able to elect members to the House of Commons. Independent candidates are rarely elected (Chuck Cadman was an exception in 2004). Canada has strict party discipline which gives the Prime Minister very high levels of control over almost all legislation passed by Parliament.

The Liberal Party has been the government of Canada for 32 of the last 42 years, and is the party of the current Prime Minister Paul Martin and his predecessor Jean Chrétien. The only other party ever to have formed a government is the now-defunct Progressive Conservative Party, which in December 2003 merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party of Canada.

Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting federal, provincial and municipal laws and regulations, and has the power to amend and strike down laws. All judges at the superior, appellate and Supreme Court of Canada levels are selected and appointed by the federal government, after consultation with various non-governmental legal bodies. Judicial posts at the lowest levels with jurisdiction limited to one province are filled by each provincial or territorial government. The Supreme Court of Canada is the final arbiter. (see Court system of Canada for more detail).

Canada is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, La Francophonie, NATO, the G8, and APEC.

Provincial and territorial government

Main article: Provinces and territories of Canada

Canada is divided into ten provinces and three territories. The provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, while the territories have somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbol.

The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as healthcare, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. The federal government can initiate national policies that the provinces can opt out of, but this rarely happens in practice. Transfer payments are made to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. Most provincial income taxes are also collected by the federal government and transferred to the provinces for simplicity.

Criminal law is solely the responsibility of the federal government, and crime and punishment is uniform throughout Canada. Though enforcement is a provincial responsibility, most of the provinces contract these services out to the RCMP. The RCMP is the only police force in the world that enforces three different levels of enforcement: municipal, provincial, and federal.

The ten provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures with governments headed by a premier who is chosen in the same fashion as the federal prime minister. Every province also has a figurehead lieutenant governor representing the Queen, appointed by the Prime Minister of Canada.

Most provinces' political climates include provincial counterparts to the three national federal parties. However, provincial parties are not normally formally linked to the federal parties, with the exception of the NDP. Some provinces have regional political parties, such as the Saskatchewan Party or the Labrador Party.

The provincial political climate of Quebec is quite different, with the main split being between separatism, represented by the Parti Québécois, and federalism, represented by the Parti Libéral du Québec. As interest in the sovereignty debate diminishes, however, the relevance of this party division is coming into question. Two smaller parties, the right-wing Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) and the left-wing Union des Forces Progressistes (UFP), are trying to break into the two-party system and do not focus primarily on the sovereignty question. However, of the two, only the ADQ has yet elected members to the National Assembly (Quebec's legislature).

Relations between the federal government and the territorial governments have been tense. Many of the disputes between the two governments have been between the usage of resources and funding. Even though the territories have the highest per capita incomes in Canada, the poverty rate in the territories has been constantly large owing to isolation, the extreme difficulty and cost of supplying goods, the scarcity of jobs, and social problems.

Economy

As an affluent, high-tech industrial society, Canada today closely resembles the United States in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. Since World War II, the impressive growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. Energy self-sufficient, Canada has vast deposits of natural gas on the east coast and in the three western provinces, and a plethora of other natural resources. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US. As a result of the close cross-border relationship, the economic downturn in the United States in 2001 had a negative impact on the Canadian economy, but less than expected. Real growth averaged nearly 3% from 1993 to 2000, but declined in 2001. As of 2003, unemployment was up, with contraction in the manufacturing and natural resource sectors. Canada has successfully avoided economic recession after 2001 and has maintained the best economic growth rates in the G7 group of nations. With its great natural resources, skilled labour force, and modern capital plant, Canada enjoys solid economic prospects.

Two shadows loom, the first being the continuing constitutional impasse between English- and French-speaking areas, which has been raising the possibility of a split in the federation. The ongoing uncertainty creates confusion about who will be responsible for the Canadian debt, what trading relationships will look like, and a host of other issues. However, as fears of separation have waned, the economy has become stronger, notably in Quebec.

Language

Canada's two official languages are English and French. On July 7, 1969, French was made equal to English throughout the Canadian federal government. This started a process that led to Canada redefining itself as a bilingual and multicultural nation at the federal level.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms lays down that:

New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, a status specifically guaranteed by the Charter of Rights, with its citizens having the same language rights at the provincial level as all citizens of Canada have at the federal level. Most provincial governments, notably Manitoba and Ontario, offer some type of service to their English or French minority populations.

The official language of Quebec is French, as defined by the province's Charter of the French Language which protects the use of French, but also provides certain rights for speakers of English and aboriginal languages. Quebec provides most government services in both French and English.

French is mostly spoken in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and southern Manitoba. In the 2001 census, 6,864,615 people listed French as a first language, of whom 85% lived in Quebec, and 17,694,835 people listed English as a first language.

Languages other than the official languages are also important in Canada, with 5,470,820 people listing a non-official language as a first language. (The above three statistics include those who listed more than one first language.) Among the most important non-official first language groups are Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), especially Cantonese (322,315); Italian (469,485); and German (438,080). Any province may have as many official languages as they see fit. Scots Gaelic is still the native tongue of a small number in Nova Scotia, especially in Cape Breton Island.

Speakers of a great many aboriginal languages live in Canada; however, all but a few of the aboriginal languages are in decline. But in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, there are eleven official languages, English and French with special status, then nine native languages: Chipewyan, Cree, Dogrib, Gwich‘in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, and South Slavey. (In Nunavut only English, Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, and French occur to any extent and it is expected that official languages there will soon be legally reduced to those alone.) The only aboriginal languages believed to be fully sustainable at present are the Cree (with 72,885 first-language speakers), Inuktitut (in the NWT and Nunavut; 29,010 speakers), and Ojibwa (together with Cree, Ojibwa will make up 150,000 speakers).

Demographics

See also: List of Canadians by ethnicity

Culture

Like American culture, Canadian culture has been heavily influenced by British culture and traditions as a result of the shared colonial past of the two countries. In addition, Canadian culture has also been influenced by American culture partially because of the close proximity of the two countries and partially because of the migration of people, ideas, capital and politics across the border. Despite these inherited British and American traditions Canadian culture has developed many unique characteristics. In many respects a more robust and distinct Canadian culture has developed in recent years, partially because of the civic nationalism that pervaded Canada in the years leading up to and following the Canadian Centennial in 1967, and also due to a focus on programs to support Canadian culture and the arts by the federal government.

The United States and Canadian governments share a variety of close working partnerships in matters of trade, economics, and legal concerns. Many American movies, authors, TV shows and musicians are equally popular in Canada, and vice-versa. Most cultural products of these types are now increasingly marketed towards a unified "North American" market, and not specifically a Canadian or American one.

As Canada and the United States have grown closer, many Canadians have developed complex feelings and concerns, regarding what makes Canada a "distinct" nation within North America. The large American cultural presence in Canada has prompted some fears of a "cultural takeover," and has initiated the establishment of many laws and government institutions to protect Canadian culture. Much of Canadian culture remains defined in contrast to American culture (See Canadian identity).

In terms of national symbols and emblems, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags and coat of arms. Canada is known for its vast forests and mountain ranges (including the Rocky Mountains) and the wild animals that reside within them, such as moose, beavers, and grizzly bears. Canada is also well-known for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force, and products made from the country's natural resources, such as maple syrup.

See also:

International rankings

Literature

Paperback Edition, Oxford University Press 2004

Miscellaneous topics

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