Language: English, French
Currency: Dollar (CAD)
Calling Code: +1
Canada is a sovereign country of North America,
whose form of government is the federal parliamentary monarchy. Its
territory is organized in ten provinces and three territories. Its
capital is the city of Ottawa and the most populated city is
Toronto. Located at the northern end of the North American
subcontinent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the
Pacific Ocean to the west, and northward to the Arctic Ocean. It
shares border with the United States to the south, and to the
northwest with its federated state Alaska. It is the second largest
country in the world after Russia, and also the northernmost. It
occupies about half of the territory of North America.
The
territory occupied by Canada was inhabited by various groups of its
aboriginal population for millennia. Since the end of the 15th
century, numerous British and French expeditions explored along the
Atlantic coast, where they later settled. France ceded almost all of
its North American colonies in 1763 after the Franco-Indian War.
In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies
through the Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal domain of
four provinces, which led to an accumulation of provinces and
territories, and a process of autonomy from the United Kingdom. This
growing autonomy was highlighted in the Westminster Statute of 1931
and culminated in the 1982 Constitution Act of Canada, which broke
the vestiges of legal dependence in the British parliament, governed
as a parliamentary democracy and monarchy. constitutional with
Isabel II as head of state. It is a bilingual nation with English
and French as official languages at the federal level.
Canada is an industrial and technologically pioneering and advanced
nation, largely self-sufficient in energy thanks to its relatively
large deposits of fossil fuels and the extensive generation of
nuclear energy and hydroelectric energy. Being one of the most
developed countries, it has a diversified economy, which makes it
independent for its large deposits and abundant natural resources as
well as for trade, particularly with the United States and Mexico.
He is currently a member of the OAS, the G-8, the G-20, NATO, the
OECD, the WTO, the UKUSA, APEC, the Commonwealth of Nations, La
Francophonie and the United Nations Organization. It is considered
one of the countries with the best quality of life.
1 Calgary – Alberta's largest city located
at the crossroads of the Canadian Prairies and the Alberta Rockies. It
is the largest metropolitan center between Toronto and Vancouver and the
fourth largest metropolitan area in Canada. It is particularly known for
its stampede, a rodeo taking place in July during which the whole city
goes into western mode.
2 Halifax – The
capital of Nova Scotia and the largest city in the Atlantic Provinces
which is known for its rich history. Although it is the most important
economic hub in Eastern Canada, the city, with less than 500,000
inhabitants, is small by the level of large North American cities and
has a slower pace of life and hospitality. bigger.
3
Montreal – The largest city in Quebec, the
economic capital of French Canada and the second largest city in Canada.
It is also the largest French-speaking city in America. It is a
cosmopolitan city with a rich architectural heritage and where many
festivals take place throughout the year.
4
Ottawa – The federal capital of Canada located in Ontario whose
agglomeration, including Gatineau, has more than 1.2 million
inhabitants; making it the sixth largest city in the country and the
second in the province. Ottawa is often recognized as one of the best
cities to live and work in Canada and has one of the lowest costs of
living among major North American cities. Although the majority of
Ottawa residents speak English, the Francophone presence is very much
alive there and represents approximately 15% of the population; making
it the largest French-speaking city in Canada located outside of Quebec.
Ottawa is host to several national museums.
5
Quebec – The capital and the second largest city of Quebec known for
its history and its French-speaking cultural life. It is the second city
founded by European settlers inside the New World continent north of Rio
Grande. French is still the language of more than 96% of the population.
In addition, it offers a rich architectural heritage including the only
fortifications north of Mexico City in America.
6
Toronto – Ontario's capital and Canada's
largest city. It is the fourth largest city in North America. Toronto is
a multicultural city since more than half of its inhabitants were born
outside of Canada.
7 Vancouver – British
Columbia's largest city. It is recognized for its quality of life, but
for its high cost of living, and is located at the gateway to the great
forests of the province and has kilometers of coastline in addition to
being close to the mountains. It has a large proportion of immigrant
population, especially from Asia. It is a very modern city offering many
tourist attractions.
8 Whitehorse – The capital of the Yukon. In
fact, it is the only city in the territory. It is located along the
Alaska Highway. It has the reputation of being the driest city in Canada
because of its low level of precipitation due to its location in a
valley. It holds the Guinness World Record for the city with the least
air pollution in the world.
9 Winnipeg – Manitoba's capital and
largest city located midway along the Trans-Canada Highway and the
Pacific-Atlantic Railway in Canada. Winnipeg is the gateway to western
Canada from the east. It is particularly known for its architecture and
its museums.
Banff National Park is situated 110 kilometers (70 mi) West of Calgary in the Alberta province of Canada. It protects 2,580 sq. mi (6,680 sq. km) of picturesque mountains and lakes in Alberta province.
Jasper National Park is located in Alberta territory of Canada. This national reserve covers an area of 10,878 sq km (4,200 sq mi).
Waterton Lakes National Park is located in Alberta province in Canada. This natural reserve covers an area of 505 km².
Barkerville Ghost Town is situated in a province of British Columbia in Canada. It was originally found in 1862.
Kootenay National Park covers an area of British Columbia in Western Canada. National park covers an area of 1,406 sq km.
Nahanni National Park is situated in Northwest Territories of Canada. This national park covers an area of 30,000 sq km.
Gros Morne National Park was designed an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 for its beautiful views, diverse ecosystem and unique biosphere.
Torngat Mountains National Park is one of the newest addition to Labrador and Newfoundland province of Canada. It covers 9,600 km2 (3,707 sq mi) of pristine lakes, mountains and glaciers.
Quttinirpaaq National Park in Nunavut province of Canada is famous for its spectacular glaciers and rich biosphere.
Sirmilik National Park is located in Nunavut province in Canada. This national park covers an area of 22,200 sq km (8,571 sq mi).
Prince Albert National Park is located in Saskatchewan province in Canada. The national park covers an area of 1496 sq mi.
Ivvavik National Park Yukon province of Canada is isolated stretch of wilderness rich with wild life.
Kluane National Park in Yukon province of Canada has one of the largest and diverse biospheres in the country.
The name Canada comes from the word kanata, meaning "settlement",
"village" and "land", "land" in the language of the Laurentian Iroquois,
who wintered in the village of Stadacona (in the vicinity of modern
Quebec), the first Indians whom Jacques Cartier met on Gaspe in the
summer of 1534 at their summer camp (cf. Mingo kanötayë' "village, city"
and Onond. ganatáje "city" from other Iroquoian languages). In 1535, the
people of what is now Quebec City used the word to refer him to the
village of Stadacona. Soon after Cartier's expedition, the Laurentian
tribe disappeared without a trace. There are several hypotheses about
the reasons for this, including European introduced diseases and
conquest by the Hurons or the Iroquois Confederacy, but none of them has
been reliably confirmed.
Cartier later used the word "Canada" to
refer not only to this village, but to the entire area under the control
of the local chief Donnacona. In 1547, on the first map of the world,
which included the regions surveyed by Cartier during his second voyage,
the word "Canada" denoted the lands north of the river and the bay,
which later received the name of St. from the river. Subsequently, this
name, used in a broad sense, became synonymous with the concept of "New
France", and then moved to most of the neighboring territories in North
America, ruled by the British Empire. After the Treaty of Paris in 1763,
when New France came under British control, the Constitutional Act of
1791 consolidated the division of the province of Quebec into Upper and
Lower Canada, giving the name "Canada" official status for the first
time. In 1841, these provinces were again united under the common name
of Canada, and in accordance with the Constitution Act of 1867, it was
inherited by a new dominion, in addition to the province of the same
name (divided into Ontario and Quebec), which included the Atlantic
colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Geography
Canada occupies most of northern North America. It is
the second largest country in the world. Its total area is 9,984,670
km², of which 9,053,507 km² are land. The territory of the country
includes more than 52 thousand islands, the area of the largest of
which, Baffin Island, exceeds 0.5 million km². Over 27% of the country's
total area is located north of the forest line. Canada owns the
northernmost permanent human settlement in the world - Alert (Nunavut),
the base of the Canadian Armed Forces on the northern tip of Ellesmere
Island, 817 km from the North Pole.
Canada stretches from the
Atlantic Ocean (with the Baffin and Labrador Seas) in the east to the
Pacific in the west and to the Arctic Ocean with the Beaufort Sea in the
north of the country. The greatest length of the country's territory
from east to west is 5514 km between Cape Spire on the island of
Newfoundland and the Yukon border with Alaska, and from north to south -
4634 km between Cape Columbia on Ellesmere Island and Middle Island on
Lake Erie (Ontario). The length of the coastline, including the
coastline of the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, exceeds 202
thousand km - the highest in the world. Until June 2022, Canada shared a
land border with only one country (the United States of America). The
total length of the land border between Canada and the United States is
8891 km (including 2475 km with Alaska). In June 2022, Canada and
Denmark divided the Arctic island of Hans in the Artik, and thus Denmark
became the second country to have a land border with Canada (about 1 km
long). By sea, Canada shares a border with France (Saint Pierre and
Miquelon).
Relief and bowels
According to the Encyclopædia
Britannica, the territory of Canada is divided into 6 physical and
geographical zones: the Canadian Shield, the interior plains, the
lowlands of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, the
Appalachians, the Western Cordillera and the Canadian Arctic
Archipelago.
The relief of Canada can be schematically
represented as a vast depression with a diameter of more than 5.2
thousand km, which captures part of the territory of the United States.
It is bounded by the Cordillera to the west, the Appalachians to the
southeast, the mountains of Northern Labrador and Baffin Island to the
northeast, and the Innuit Mountains to the north. The low part of the
depression is formed by the Canadian Shield with heights of no more than
600 m above sea level; Hudson Bay is located in its deepest central
part. The edges of the resulting "cauldron" are higher in the west than
in the east, and in the extreme northwest and south are absent for a
significant extent of the contour of the depression.
The Canadian
Shield covers about half of the country's total area. This is a rocky
region formed by ancient Precambrian rocks and lost its fertile soil
layer during the last ice age. Around the Canadian Shield are lowlands
composed of sedimentary rocks. Notable among these are the Canadian
Prairies to the west, stretching from the Arctic Ocean in the north to
the US border in the south and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in
the west. The lowest part of the prairies, not more than 300 m above sea
level, is located in the province of Manitoba, the Saskatchewan plains
have an altitude of 450 to 650 m above sea level, and the Alberta plains
adjacent to the Rocky Mountains are more than 750 m. To the east of the
Canadian Shield are lowlands adjacent to the Great Lakes and stretching
along the channel of the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. These
lowlands, relatively small in area, are densely populated and fertile,
and are characterized by well-developed industry and agriculture.
The Canadian Appalachians are low, time-smoothed mountains left over
from a zone of ancient folding. They stretch from the city of Quebec in
the south of the St. Lawrence Valley northeast to the Gaspé Peninsula,
the Maritime Provinces, and the island of Newfoundland. The maximum
heights of this region, cut by valleys and turning into a plateau in the
east, reach 1200 m in its southern part. The Western Cordillera is a
system of ridges with a total width of up to 800 km, stretching along
the Pacific coast from the border with the United States to the south of
the Yukon territory. The steep slopes and great heights testify to the
geological youth of these mountains. So, in the Rocky Mountains there
are more than 30 peaks above 3000 m (3954 m at Mount Robson), in some
places there are snow caps. The highest of the ranges of the Western
Cordillera is the Coast Range. It includes several peaks above 4,500 m,
including Canada's highest peak, Logan in the St. Elias Mountains in the
Yukon Territory.
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago is made up of
thousands of islands north of the Canadian mainland. The southeastern
part of the archipelago is a continuation of the Canadian Shield, and
the rest of the Encyclopedia Britannica divides into two groups:
low-lying islands in the south and mountainous islands of the Innuit
group (also known as the Queen Elizabeth Islands) in the north. The
Innuit mountains are a young formation, similar to the Cordillera, and
among them peaks above 3000 m are not uncommon. Most of the islands of
this group are covered with ice and snow, and bare peaks are only
occasionally visible from under the snow cover. The straits between the
islands of the archipelago are part of the Northwest Sea Route from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
Canada has large reserves of
minerals. Ores are primarily rich in the territory of the Canadian
Shield, in some places in the Western Cordillera and the Appalachians,
while the main reserves of fossil fuels have been explored in the plains
of Western Canada. Among the fossil fuel deposits, the Pembina and
Redwater oil fields and the Zama oil and gas field stand out; oil-rich
areas of tar sands in Alberta - Athabasca, Cold Lake, Peace River.
Significant reserves of oil and natural gas have been explored in the
north of the country (in the Mackenzie River delta and on the shelf of
the Beaufort Sea), as well as on the Atlantic shelf near Newfoundland
(Hybernia, Terra Nova). Canada's main coal deposits are located in the
Northern Appalachians and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Of the
ore minerals, Canada has large reserves of zinc, tungsten (2nd in the
world), uranium (3rd), lead (4th), molybdenum, cobalt, titanium, iron,
nickel, copper, gold and platinum metals. The subsoil of Canada
(Saskatchewan potash basin) contains more than half of the world's
proven reserves of potash salts, its diamond reserves are also one of
the largest in the world.
The territory of Canada is divided between the arctic, subarctic and
temperate climatic zones. Seasonality is pronounced, cyclonic activity
is developed, which is expressed in a sharp change in weather. In the
northern part of the country, the climate is reminiscent of Scandinavia,
with its cold winters and short, cool summers. In the central steppe
regions, very cold winters are combined with hot summers and low
rainfall. Southern Ontario and Quebec have cold, snowy winters and hot,
humid summers. The climate in the coastal regions to the east and west
is moderated by warm currents - the Gulf Stream and Alaska,
respectively, and off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, where the
Gulf Stream meets the cold Labrador Current, the result is lower
temperatures and frequent fogs. Hudson Bay, which extends deeply into
the land, leads to the penetration of Arctic air masses into the eastern
regions and, on average, lower temperatures than in the west.
The
temperature difference between the northern and southern regions of the
country is especially large in winter. Thus, the average January
temperature in Alert in the north of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago is
-28.6 °C, and in Windsor in southern Ontario it is only -0.4 °C. The
mean July temperature varies less, with Alerta at 6.1°C and Windsor at
29°C. The lowest temperature on record in Canada was recorded in 1947 in
the Yukon Territory at -63 ° C, and the record high, 49.6 ° C, was
recorded in June 2021 in Lytton (British Columbia).
On the
Pacific coast, the prevailing westerly winds carry a large amount of
moisture, which leads to heavy precipitation (up to 2500 mm per year or
more). In the Atlantic regions, from 1000 to 1500 mm of precipitation
falls annually, and in the interior of the country the amount of
precipitation varies from 500 mm in the south to 150 or less on the
islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Snow cover is observed
throughout the country, reaching a maximum thickness (610 cm) in the
Rocky Mountains and on the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The
smallest thickness, less than 25 cm per year, is characteristic of the
Pacific coast, where it often snows with rain.
Inland waters
Annually renewable water resources of the country reach 2902 km³, or
more than 90 thousand m³ per year for each inhabitant. On the territory
of Canada there is about 1/7 of the world's fresh water reserves, which
are mostly concentrated in lakes and swamps, covering about 20% of the
country's territory. Canada contains 62% of the world's lakes with a
surface area of more than 0.1 km². The Great Lakes, along which part
of the border between Canada and the United States runs, are the world's
largest source of fresh water by area. In addition, Canada has the Great
Bear and Great Slave Lakes in the Northwest Territories and Lakes
Winnipeg and Manitoba in the province of Manitoba. The Great Slave Lake
is the deepest in Canada (depths up to 614 m). At the same time, the
largest total surface of freshwater bodies in Canada falls on the
province of Quebec (176,928 km²).
About 3/4 of the territory of
Canada belongs to the Arctic Ocean basin (including Hudson Bay and James
Bay). Canada's longest river, the Mackenzie, flows into the Arctic Ocean
and collects water from an area of 1.8 million km². Of the rivers
flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, the largest is the St. Lawrence River,
whose basin includes the Great Lakes system. The Yukon and Columbia
Rivers flow into the Pacific Ocean, originating in Canada; of the rivers
flowing into the Pacific Ocean, completely flowing through the country,
the largest is the Fraser.
The vegetation of Canada, represented by deciduous forest in southern
Ontario, is replaced by mixed forests and steppe zones (prairies) at
higher latitudes near the coasts and inland. Further north, it passes
into the taiga, and in the subpolar and polar regions into the tundra,
which in turn is replaced by arctic deserts and semi-deserts of the Far
North.
In the polar tundra, in conditions of cool summers, low
rainfall and a short growing season, vegetation cover is sparse. North
of 74°N sh. at altitudes of 100 m or more above sea level, vegetation is
usually absent, the rocky surface forms a full-fledged Arctic desert.
Lowlands are characterized by areas of sedge-moss tundra. In the
northern tundra, cushion-shaped plants are most frequent, lichens and
mosses are abundant, and less often, undersized creeping shrubs (arctic
willow, eight-petal dryad). Further south, in the subpolar tundra,
herbaceous plants are more diverse, and woody shrubs (willow, alder, and
ferruginous birch) are more common, reaching a height of 2–3 meters
along the banks of water bodies and on steep slopes. The dominant soils
are cryozems and gleyozems.
The Canadian taiga, which occupies
vast expanses south of the tundra, is the second largest area of
undisturbed forests in the world, second only to the Russian taiga. In
the north, cryozems lie under the taiga forests, and in the south,
alpha-humus, podzolic, and marsh soils. The species diversity of
Canadian taiga trees is low. The most common are black spruce, gray
spruce and paper birch, balsam fir and American larch are common.
Significant territories (about 1.3 million km²) on the border of taiga
and tundra are occupied by the so-called taiga shield - a strip on which
tundra vegetation and northern coniferous forest mix.
On the
border of taiga and steppes in the region of the central plains, an
aspen forest-steppe stretches, characterized mainly by steppe vegetation
with groups of aspens and poplars in moist lowlands and along river
channels. To the east of the border between Ontario and Manitoba, the
taiga turns into mixed forests, reaching the Great Lakes and Appalachian
regions. In this region, weymouth pine, resinous pine, western thuja and
Canadian hemlock are added to the usual taiga species, and hardwoods
include sugar maple, red maple, beech, red oak and American ash. The
main soils are podzolized brown soils.
The Canadian Prairies are
vast steppes in the south of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta, as well as in the flat part of inland British Columbia. This
region is divided into 4 zones depending on the soil. In the semi-desert
areas of British Columbia, the most common wheatgrass is the most
common. The largest area in the dry regions of southwestern Saskatchewan
and southeastern Alberta is occupied by mixed prairie, where
drought-resistant medium and low grasses coexist. Closer to the border
of the taiga, on the chernozems of Alberta and western Saskatchewan,
there is a prairie dominated by fescue, and to the east - tall grass, or
real, prairie, where the dominant species are Gerard's bearded vulture
and porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea).
In the Rocky
Mountains, heights from 1200 m to the forest line cover subalpine
forests dominated by blue-grass spruce, Engelmann spruce and lodgepole
pine. The ridges that cross the arid interior plateau are characterized
by an open forest of aspens and Geoffrey pines, with frequent patches of
meadows at lower altitudes, and Menzies pseudo-hemlock and lodgepole
pine at higher altitudes. Above the forest line lies the alpine tundra,
where the soil is covered with a dense layer of mosses and lichens and
dwarf shrubs are often found. The western slopes of the Rocky Mountains
trap moisture from the Pacific Ocean and grow the finest timber in the
country in rain shadow conditions. The main species in this region are
Menzies pseudo-hemlock, western hemlock and thuja folded; of the
deciduous trees, the most common are alder, poplar, and maples. The
northern boundary of the range of the Mentzis strawberry tree, the only
native evergreen deciduous tree in Canada, also passes here.
The
only piece of deciduous forest in Canada is located in the extreme south
of the country - on the southeastern peninsula, which juts out into the
Great Lakes system. It represents the northern tip of the Caroline
Forest zone, mostly found in the United States. In addition to deciduous
trees included in mixed forests, there are trees characteristic of much
lower latitudes - tulip tree, velvety oak, white oak, several types of
hickory.
The diversity of Canada's climatic and physical-geographical zones
affects the species composition of its animal world, which includes more
than 200 species of mammals, more than 470 species of birds and about 40
species of reptiles. On the Arctic coast there are seals and polar bears
hunting them. Other typical animals of the Canadian Arctic are the musk
ox, reindeer, hare, lemmings, and predators include the polar wolf,
arctic fox, polar weasel. White partridges and snowy owls are permanent
residents of high latitudes, this region becomes a summer nesting place
for snow goose and Canada goose.
In the taiga there are moose,
North American porcupine, Canadian beaver, Canadian lynx, wolf, baribal
bear, numerous species of corvids. White-tailed deer are widespread on
the border of taiga and forest-steppe and in recent clearings. Small
mammals of coniferous and mixed forests include common squirrels, minks,
striped raccoons, muskrats, skunks, American rabbits, woodchucks,
various types of hares, mice and moles. In southern Ontario, the wild
turkey was reintroduced in the 1980s, and the range of the coyote spread
far south, reaching the outskirts of Toronto.
Rodents are common
on the prairie, including ground squirrels, gophers, and prairie dogs.
The previously wide ranges of black-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope
are shrinking due to agricultural development of the prairies. In the
western mountains in the highlands, the bighorn sheep and bighorn goat
are found, and in remote areas the cougar and Canadian grizzly have
survived.
State of the environment and environmental ratings
By the beginning of the 21st century, about a quarter of Canada's
territory had undergone anthropogenic transformation. In Southern
Ontario and the St. Lawrence Valley, home to half the country's
population and home to major cities and farmland, natural flora and
fauna have largely disappeared and lake waters are being polluted. Large
areas on the prairies are occupied by agricultural land and mining
enterprises, active human activity can lead to soil erosion. A difficult
ecological situation is developing around large cities and industrial
zones in other regions of the country (Sudbury, Thompson, Shefferville).
Mining enterprises pollute the environment with emissions of harmful
substances into the air and wastewater; in particular, the oil and gas
industry produces a quarter of the country's greenhouse gases.
A
total of 11.7% of Canada (including inland waters) and 8.9% of its
territorial waters are protected areas; in British Columbia, almost 20%
of the province's total area is devoted to protected natural areas. More
than 3% of the country's area - 340 thousand km² - is occupied by
national parks and reserves. In almost all national parks, mining,
logging and the construction of hydroelectric facilities are prohibited.
A number of national parks in Canada or sites in their territory
received the status of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
In the
180-country Environmental Performance Index, Canada ranked 25th in 2020
(including 12th out of 33 OECD countries). However, in the same year,
its place in the list of countries on the Human Development Index
deteriorated significantly (from 16th to 56th) after the calculation of
the index included an estimate of "planetary loads".
indigenous peoples
The beginning of the settlement of North
America by man is traditionally associated with the last ice age - as a
rule, the arrival of man dates back about 12 thousand years ago, but
some theories push it back to the past by 60 thousand years.
Archaeological studies have confirmed human presence in northern Yukon
from about 26,000 to 27,000 years ago and in southern Ontario from 9,500
years ago. The oldest monuments of the Paleo-Indian culture in Canada
are the archaeological sites of Old Crow Flats and Bluefish.
The
cultures of North America in the period before the arrival of Europeans
on the continent can be judged both from the oral history of indigenous
peoples and from archaeological finds. The peoples of pre-Columbian
Canada were characterized by cultural diversity. Thus, the peoples of
the Woodland culture (Hurons, Iroquois, Algonquins and others) led a
semi-sedentary way of life, combining hunting with agriculture and
trade. Some of these peoples were distinguished by a high level of
political organization, which is evidenced by the formation of political
and religious alliances. As part of the Woodland culture, at the turn of
the new era, the production of ceramics began, corn, beans, and pumpkins
were cultivated. The cultures of the Pacific coast were based on
fishing, hunting and gathering. Within these cultures, like the Woodland
culture, complex political, social, and cultural institutions have
developed. On the contrary, the peoples of the Far North did not form
large political communities.
The number of the indigenous
population of Canada at the time of the first mass contacts with
Europeans, according to various estimates, ranged from 200,000 to
slightly more than 2,000,000 people. The Canadian Royal Commission on
Indigenous Health adopted a figure of 500,000. majority of the
indigenous population. By 1867, only 100,000 to 125,000 remained alive,
including the Inuit and Mestizos, whose culture arose when Indians and
Inuit mixed with European settlers.
The first visits by Europeans
and the beginning of colonization
The first Europeans arrived in
North America around 1000 AD. BC, when the Vikings founded settlements
on the island of Newfoundland, now known from the archaeological site of
L'Anse aux Meadows. Apparently, initially they were at enmity with the
local population, which is known as the Skrelings, but later regular
trade relations began. Soon, however, the Vikings left Greenland and
Newfoundland. The next known European visit to the North American
continent dates back to 1497, when John Cabot, looking for a Northwest
Passage for England, explored the coasts of Labrador, Newfoundland, and
possibly Nova Scotia. During the first decades of the 16th century,
various Portuguese sailors continued to explore the east coast of Canada
and probably established a permanent settlement.
In 1524, the
expedition of Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator in the French
service, visited the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. 10 years
later, Jacques Cartier landed on the Gaspe Peninsula, declaring open
lands the property of the French crown. Having risen along the St.
Lawrence River, the French in 1541 founded Fort Charlesbourg-Royal near
the Indian village of Stadacon, but then the French colonization of new
lands ceased until the end of the century. Only in 1598 was a settlement
founded on Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia, in 1600 Tadusac in
what is now Quebec, and in 1605 Port Royal in Nova Scotia. In 1608,
Samuel de Champlain founded the fortress of Quebec on the Saint Lawrence
River, which was to control the river and serve as a center for the fur
trade with the local peoples. This fortress later became the center of
the New France colony.
Within five years of first contact with
foreigners, half of the Hurons of the Great Lakes region died from
diseases brought by European settlers. Epidemics then continued to
spread to the north and west of the continent.
Franco-English
rivalry
Initially, the development of New France was entrusted to
private companies, but it was too slow. By 1663, the European population
of the colony was slightly more than 3,000 people, of which almost half
were people born already in America. The close trading relationship with
the Hurons established by the French settlers did not include the sale
of firearms; as a result, by the end of the 1840s, the Iroquois, armed
by the Dutch, inflicted a series of heavy defeats on the Hurons,
reducing their influence in the region to zero.
In 1663, King Louis XIV equated New France in status with the
European provinces of France. Troops were sent to America to force the
hostile Iroquois tribes to peace, the construction of fortifications was
launched, the authorities began to encourage young girls to move to the
New World, which in the first 20 years led to a serious increase in the
population. By 1670, Acadia, a French colony on the territory of modern
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, joined New France. The advance of French
explorers and merchants, known as voyageurs, deep into the continent
resumed. Many of them settled in new places and married local women,
which subsequently led to the formation of a new ethnic community -
Canadian mestizos.
Simultaneously with the French colonization of
North America was the English. Already in 1583, Humphrey Gilbert claimed
the rights of the English crown on the coast of Newfoundland in the area
of the modern city of St. John's, considering it as a base for
fishing. In 1629, David Kirk and his brothers captured the fortress of
Quebec, which returned to French control only three years later. In
1670, the Hudson's Bay Company was established, taking ownership of the
lands around the bay, and New France was sandwiched between the
possessions of rival powers in the south and in the north.
Competition for the fur market soon escalated into open warfare. A new
attempt by the British to capture Quebec in 1690 failed, and by 1700
Louis de Frontenac almost completely drove them out of the vicinity of
Hudson Bay. However, these successes were short-lived: as part of the
concessions following the War of the Spanish Succession (known in North
America as the Queen Anne's War), France renounced claims to Hudson Bay,
lost Acadia and positions in Newfoundland. The conflict subsequently
re-emerged as part of the War of the Austrian Succession and then the
Seven Years' War, the North American theater of which is known in
English literature as the French and Indian War. At the first stage of
this war, in 1757, success was accompanied by the French, who had more
combat-ready forces, but in the future, a huge numerical superiority (a
million settlers in North America against 70 thousand French and several
thousand of their Indian allies) and competent actions of the commanders
of the English side tipped the scale weights towards her. In 1760,
General Amherst laid siege to Montreal, forcing New France to
capitulate.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, all
French possessions north of the Mississippi, with the exception of the
islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, came under the rule of the
British. Those converted the new territorial acquisitions into the
province of Quebec. Passed 11 years later, the Quebec Act secured a
number of privileges for the Catholic Church and landowners-seniors in
the territory of the colony, gave Catholics the right to hold public
office and officially recognized the use of the French language and
French civil law.
English Period: Upper and Lower Canada
In
the mid-1770s, the American Revolution began. Already at the beginning
of active hostilities, revolutionary troops invaded the Quebec colony,
occupying Montreal and attacking the city of Quebec and ports on the
Atlantic. By the summer of 1776 they were driven back to New York, but
the success of the rebels in other regions forced over 40,000 British
Loyalists to emigrate to Nova Scotia and Quebec. Their desire to live
under the rule of the English crown was in conflict with the terms of
the Quebec Act, which granted the colonies their own laws. As a result,
in 1791, Quebec was divided by the Constitutional Act into two provinces
with different laws, but a common British constitution and a system of
administrative control that combined the supreme power of the
governor-general appointed by the metropolis with the presence of
representative legislative bodies. The new provinces were named Upper
Canada (with an English-speaking majority) and Lower Canada (with a
French-speaking one). Prior to that, in 1784, a new province of New
Brunswick was separated from Nova Scotia, the population of which was
made up of loyalist settlers.
On the border between the United
States and the British provinces in North America, the main events of
the Anglo-American War of 1812-1814 then unfolded. This war contributed
to the formation of national consciousness among the population of
Canada, who fought against the enemy invasion. Following the end of the
war, a series of agreements led to a long peace between Canada and the
United States. In 1815, mass immigration to Canada from the British
Isles began, lasting 40 years.
In 1837-1838, the lack of
representative bodies of real power, in Lower Canada, aggravated by
interethnic tension and the general impoverishment of the peasant part
of the population, led to uprisings in Lower and Upper Canada. The
uprisings were crushed, some of their participants were executed or sent
to hard labor, and their leaders Louis-Joseph Papineau and William Lyon
Mackenzie fled to the United States (both were later pardoned and
returned to Canada).
Province of Canada
After the suppression
of the rebellions of 1837-1838, on the recommendation of the Governor
General Lord Durham, the British colonial government decided to reunite
Upper and Lower Canada. This was to create conditions for the
assimilation of the French-speaking population by strengthening the
influence of English culture. The Durham Report also recommended that
responsible government be given to the colonies, but these
recommendations were initially disregarded, and only the proposal of
union was implemented in the Act of Union of 1840. In the legislature of
the united province of Upper and Lower (now Western and Eastern) Canada
received equal representation, regardless of the number of inhabitants.
Plans to assimilate Eastern Canada, however, ended in failure. A few
years later, in a united parliament, French-speaking reformist
politicians led by Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine formed an alliance with
the reformists of Western Canada and achieved responsible government in
Canada. From that moment on, the creation of a government cabinet in
Canada became impossible without the support of deputies from Eastern
Canada, who thus received the opportunity to influence the policy of the
entire province.
In 1846, the United States and the United
Kingdom agreed to establish the 49th parallel as the boundary separating
the United States and western British North America. In the 1840s and
1850s, Great Britain founded new colonies on the Pacific coast of North
America - Vancouver on the island of the same name and British Columbia.
Meanwhile, support for the ideas of free trade and the reform of the
colonial empire grew in the mother country. By 1846, the protectionist
Corn Laws, which protected goods from the colonies from duties, were
repealed. Having lost the British market, Canada signed a free trade
agreement with the United States in 1854, and the growth in trade led to
an economic boom in the united province. However, the treaty ended a
decade later, during the American Civil War. Developments south of the
border also posed a military threat to the British colonies in North
America. The desire to secure their borders and the need to look for new
ways to support economic growth led Canadian politicians to decide on
the need to unite all North American colonies.
Canadian
confederation
At the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences of 1864 and
the London conference of 1866, conditions were worked out for the
unification of the three colonies - Canada, Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick - into a new state. The British North America Act, which came
into force on July 1, 1867, created a dominion called Canada, divided
into four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
However, the territory of the new country continued to expand to include
other lands. Soon the government bought the rights to the vast Rupert's
Land - the territory around Hudson's Bay - from the Hudson's Bay Company
and annexed it to Canada as the Northwest Territory. In the early 1870s,
dominion treaties were signed with British Columbia (which included the
former Vancouver colony since 1866) and Prince Edward Island.
The
accession to Canada of Rupert's Land ran into resistance from the
French-speaking mestizos who lived in the Red River community in the
south of this territory. Their leader Louis Riel organized armed
resistance to the Canadian authorities. As a result, in 1870, the small
province of Manitoba was separated from the Northwest Territory, in
which the French language and Catholic schools received special status.
In addition, in order to ensure the settlement of the central part of
the country, the government of Canada since 1871 began signing
agreements with local Indian tribes, under which they gave up their
traditional lands for a fee and certain privileges. In the future, many
promises made under these agreements remained unfulfilled, and the
government set a course for the assimilation of indigenous peoples.
To strengthen ties between the east and west of the federation, the
Canadian government organized the construction of the Pacific Railway
and began to take measures to encourage the settlement of the prairies
in the center of the country. These plans faced resistance from the
indigenous peoples. A new Métis rebellion broke out on the Saskatchewan
River, led by Riel; at the same time, some prairie Indian tribes opposed
the federal government, which were threatened with starvation due to the
destruction of buffalo herds. The uprisings, however, were crushed by
the government of J. A. Macdonald, and Riel was executed.
The prairie development program bore fruit by the beginning of the
20th century. The population of the Northwest Territory and Manitoba
(which was expanded to the west and north in 1881) exceeded 400,000 in
1901 and 1.3 million a decade later. The population of the Northwest
Territory, dissatisfied with the status of the province, demanded the
introduction of responsible government, and in 1905 two new provinces
were created between Manitoba and the Rocky Mountains - Saskatchewan and
Alberta, stretching from the border with the United States to 60 ° N.
sh. In 1880, Great Britain officially transferred to Canada the rights
to all its remaining possessions in the American Arctic. In 1898, when
the population of Yukon County, which was part of the Northwest
Territory, increased dramatically due to the Klondike Gold Rush, the
federal government decided to grant it the status of a separate
territory.
Sovereign Canada
The Liberal government of Wilfrid
Laurier, which came to power in the 1890s, headed for the transition
from the status of a dominion (“senior” colony) to full sovereignty,
refusing to participate in the project of “imperial federation”. Despite
this, at the beginning of the 20th century, about 7,000 Canadian
soldiers took part in the Anglo-Boer War in Africa on the side of Great
Britain, and Canada entered the First World War automatically at the
same time as Great Britain. The first Canadian troops sent to the
European front were mostly volunteers. Based on these forces, the 1st
Canadian Division was formed, which first saw action during the Battle
of Ypres in 1915. The Canadian Expeditionary Force, which was created
later, became famous at the Battle of Vimy in 1917. However, in the same
year, heavy losses in the front-line units forced the Canadian
government, despite the resistance of the Quebecers, to introduce
universal conscription.
In total, 625,000 Canadian troops
participated in the war, of which 60,000 were killed and 173,000 were
injured. The successes of the Canadian troops at the front and the
important role played by the country in organizing military supplies
brought it from a number of colonies to the number of victorious states.
Prime Minister Borden signed the Versailles Treaty of 1919, and Canada
was admitted to the League of Nations as a full member, independent of
Great Britain. In 1931, the Statute of Westminster formally removed
Canada and other dominions from the jurisdiction of the British
Parliament, securing their status as sovereign states united only by a
common monarch.
In domestic politics, in the post-war years,
workers' and farmers' movements intensified, which in 1919 resulted in a
6-week general strike. In 1929, the Great Depression particularly hit
Canada, whose economy was largely dependent on the primary industries.
The crisis was exacerbated by severe drought in the central provinces.
Among the unemployed, revolutionary sentiment intensified, participants
in left-wing demonstrations got into fights with the police. Steps to
improve the economy and society in the mid-1930s included sweeping
social reforms and the signing of a new free trade agreement with the
United States.
Since 1936, the government of Canada has supported
the course of Great Britain and France to appease Nazi Germany.
Dependent on Quebec's support, Prime Minister Mackenzie King avoided
taking a clear stance on a potential military conflict with Germany. On
September 10, 1939, the Canadian Parliament voted almost unanimously to
enter the war, but the government initially promised to abstain from the
general draft. The situation changed in 1940 after the surrender of
France and the expulsion of British troops from continental Europe.
Royal Canadian Navy ships guarded transatlantic sea convoys, and
Canadian airmen fought in the Battle of Britain. A limited contingent of
Canadian soldiers took part in the defense of Hong Kong in 1941, and in
a national plebiscite in 1942, 2/3 of the Canadian population approved
the introduction of universal conscription. Shortly thereafter, the
Canadians formed the bulk of the troops involved in the unsuccessful
landing at Dieppe. From July 1943, Canadian troops fought in Sicily and
Italy, and in June 1944 they played an important role in the Normandy
landings. By the autumn of 1944, heavy losses forced the Canadian
government to reinforce the ground forces in Europe with conscripts,
which almost led to the fall of M. King's cabinet. In total, more than a
million Canadians took part in the fighting, of which 42,000 were killed
and 54,000 were injured.
During the war years, the expansion of state programs of social
support continued. In particular, in 1940, the program of federal
unemployment benefits was adopted, and in 1944, benefits for large
families were introduced. The authority of Canada, as a country that
made a significant contribution to the victory of the anti-Hitler
coalition, grew again in the international arena, and she took an active
part in the creation of the UN.
post-war period
After World
War II, the development of the institutions of Canadian statehood
continued. Canadian citizenship was introduced in 1947, and in 1949 the
Supreme Court of Canada officially became its highest court. In the same
year, the Dominion of Newfoundland entered the confederation following
the results of national referendums. For the first time, a native of the
country, Vincent Massey, became Governor General of Canada. The period
from 1945 to 1960 is considered the "golden age of Canadian diplomacy":
although in 1949 the country became one of the founders of the NATO
military bloc, it played the role of an intermediary state in the
international arena, helping to ease international tensions. As chairman
of the UN General Assembly, Canadian diplomat Lester Pearson helped
bring the Korean War to an end and later played a key role in organizing
the UN peacekeeping force, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize.
The Canadian economy flourished in the early post-war
decades. There was a diversification of production, in which new,
high-tech industries were added to traditional industries, the discovery
of mineral deposits in Newfoundland and Labrador contributed to the
development of the mining industry. American capital was actively
invested in the Canadian economy, and Canadian goods found a reliable
market in the United States. The ethnic composition and social structure
of Canadian society changed as a result of mass immigration, primarily
from the countries of Southern Europe, which reached its peak (282
thousand people) in 1957. After L. Pearson became prime minister in the
1960s, the policy of social reform was continued, within which the
National Health Care Program and the Canadian Pension Program, the
national institution of social insurance, were established.
Post-war governments took steps to improve the lot of indigenous
peoples, among whom poverty and disease were common. The inhabitants of
the reservations were provided with better medical care and education,
in 1960 they received voting rights. In 1969, French was given equal
official status in Canada with English. At the same time, separatist
sentiment in Quebec intensified, coinciding with a period of social and
economic reform in the province known as the Quiet Revolution. During
the October Crisis of 1970, the radical Quebec Liberation Front
kidnapped British diplomat and provincial labor minister P. Laporte, who
was later killed. The federal government had to impose martial law,
about 500 activists were arrested, although there were relatively few
convictions. The 1980 Quebec independence referendum ended in defeat for
the separatists.
In 1982, the patriation of the Canadian
constitution took place, after which the British authorities lost
jurisdiction over relations between the federal center and the provinces
of Canada. The first part of the new constitution was the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The federal government tried to reach
long-term agreements with the provincials, especially in Quebec, but
attempts to sign constitutional documents at the conferences at Lake
Meech (1987) and Charlottetown (1992) were not successful. In 1995, in
the second Quebec independence referendum, anti-secessionists won by
only a narrow margin. Later, however, economic prosperity and further
concessions from the federal authorities weakened the position of Quebec
separatism. At the same time, the government managed to agree on
granting self-government to the Inuit of Northeastern Canada, and in
1999 the territory of Nunavut was formed.
In 1992, the government
of B. Mulroney signed an agreement on the creation of the North American
Free Trade Area. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Canadian
economy, in particular due to rising energy prices, again experienced a
period of growth, as a result of which the Canadian dollar in 2007
equaled the US dollar for the first time in more than 30 years.
Subsequently, growth slowed down due to the global economic crisis. The
liberalization of society continued: in 2005 Canada became the fourth
country in the world and the first outside Europe to legalize same-sex
marriage, and in 2018 the recreational use of marijuana was legalized.
As of the 2021 Census, there were 36,991,981 people living in Canada,
up 5.2% from 2016. In terms of population, Canada ranks 38th in the
world, and its population density (about 4.2 people per 1 km²) is one of
the lowest in the world.
Despite its large area, approximately
80% of Canada's population lives within 150 km of the US border. In
total, more than half of the country's population falls on two provinces
- Ontario (about a third) and Quebec (about a quarter). Canada is highly
urbanized: almost ¾ of the inhabitants are concentrated in 41 census
urban areas (settlements with a population of more than 100 thousand
people). Most of the population growth is also in cities. The largest
cities in Canada are Toronto (2.73 million inhabitants in 2016 and about
6 million inhabitants in the urban agglomeration), Montreal (1.7
million), Calgary (1.24 million inhabitants) and the capital city of
Ottawa (0.93 million inhabitants).
The population growth rate in
Canada (from 0.8% to 1.2% per year) is the highest among the G7
countries and one of the highest among developed countries. Although
Canada's birth rate is only 1.53 children per woman, below the
replacement rate (traditionally taken as 2.1 children per woman), this
is offset by high rates of immigration. Net immigration is 6,375 people
per 1,000 inhabitants - this figure is in the top ten in the world. In
terms of the share of immigrants in the population, Canada is also in
the top ten among all countries of the world and ranks first among the
G7 countries: according to the 2016 census, 21.9% of Canadians were born
in other countries. Since the 1960s and 1970s, as a result of
anti-discriminatory reforms in immigration policy, the share of
Europeans among immigrants has been constantly decreasing, and in the
period from 2011 to 2016, the largest number of new Canadians arrived in
the country from the Philippines (15.6%), from India (12 .1%) and China
(10.6%). In 2016, representatives of more than 250 ethnic groups lived
in the country (respondents could identify themselves with more than one
group). The most common ethnic self-identification was "Canadian"
(almost 1/3 of the respondents); 18% identified themselves as British,
14% each as Scots and French, 10% as German and 5% as Chinese. 4% of
census participants reported being Canadian Indigenous (a total of 2.1
million respondents). In addition to representatives of indigenous
peoples, 22.3% of respondents considered themselves to be visible
minorities, that is, they had an appearance atypical for Caucasians and
skin color different from the white majority. Of this number, more than
60% were African Canadians and Chinese and their descendants.
Life expectancy in Canada increased by 24.7 years between 1921 and 2014,
when it stood at 81.8 years (83.9 for women and 79.7 for men). In terms
of life expectancy, Canada consistently outperforms the United States
and is comparable to many European countries. The country has achieved
one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world (4.7 per thousand
live births in 2014). At the same time, due to the growing survival rate
at the age of 60 years and older, the proportion of older people in the
population of Canada continues to grow. In 2019, there were over 10,000
people aged 100 and over in the country, a 200% increase from 2001. The
aging of the population, as well as the decrease in the rate of natural
increase, is offset by an increase in the rate of immigration. At the
same time, not only the influx of in-demand professions known as
economic immigrants has a positive effect, but also the arrival of new
residents in the country under family reunification programs, as well as
refugees, since population growth means consumption growth, which in
turn contributes to the growth of production and the labor market .
Internal migration in Canada is directed primarily towards a higher
demand for labor - from rural areas to small towns, and from there to
large cities; remains consistently high and the exchange of population
between Canadian metropolitan areas (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver).
Rapidly developing regions are also attractive for internal migrants -
at the beginning of the 21st century, the tar sands mining region in
Alberta met these conditions. In general, Alberta and British Columbia
are the most attractive provinces for internal migrants, while the
balance of internal migration of the Atlantic provinces, Saskatchewan
and Manitoba in the first decades of the 21st century was mostly
negative.
Canada — officially a bilingual country. According to the Official
Language Act of 1969, English and French languages have equal status,
although they differ in degree of prevalence. Английский — the main
language of communication in the greater part of the country, New
Brunswick — the only official bilingual province of Canada, and in
Quebec, where French is native to 80% of the population, it acts as the
only official language. In the 2021 population census, 55% of
respondents named English as their native language, and 20% — French.
97% of the population speak at least one of the two official languages
(76% prefer English, 21% — French), including 18% — bilingual, equally
proficient in both. The highest proportion of bilinguals — in Quebec
(46.4%), in New Brunswick bilinguals make up 34% of the population,
while in each of the four provinces of Western Canada, in Newfoundland
and Labrador and in the territory of Nunavut less than 10% of the
population are bilingual.
In addition to English and French,
other languages in Canada are divided into two categories: the
languages of indigenous peoples (Indians, Inuit and Métis), which are
not protected by federal laws, and the so-called immigrant languages,
which do not have any legal status, but often widely используютные в
качественном общении. In total, there are about 70 indigenous languages
in Canada, belonging to 12 families. In total, in 2016, 260 thousand
Canadians spoke one of these languages, including 176 thousand in
Algonquian languages, 96.5 thousand in Cree languages, and 28 thousand
in Ojibway. At the same time, in 40 languages out of 70, there were
only 500 or less speakers. In the same year, 7.12 million Canadians were
native to one of the immigrant languages, including more than a million
— Northern Chinese language and Cantonese dialect. For half a million
Canadians, Punjabi was their native language, more than 400 thousand
said Spanish, Arabic or Tagalog was their native language, and more than
350 thousand said German and Italian.
Canada is a constitutional monarchy, headed by the British monarch.
The monarch is represented in Canada by the governor-general (not
necessarily of Canadian origin), who is appointed by the monarch on the
advice of the government of Canada. The Governor General performs a
predominantly ceremonial function, performing most of his actions as a
government official "on the advice" of the Government of Canada. Canada
is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
In practice, Canada
is a federal parliamentary democracy independent of Great Britain. The
1982 Constitution Act excluded the participation of the British
Parliament in Canada's constitutional process. The seat of the
government of the country is the capital of Canada, Ottawa. Federal
legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Canada, which consists
of the British monarch (or the Governor General as his plenipotentiary),
the House of Commons and the Senate. Although formally both Houses of
Parliament have legislative powers, bills relating to taxation and the
expenditure of public funds are introduced only in the House of Commons.
The supreme bearer of executive power is the monarch of Great
Britain, but in practice it is exercised by the cabinet of ministers
headed by the prime minister. The post of Prime Minister is usually held
by the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, whose power
is guaranteed by the confidence of Parliament. Cabinet ministers are
usually also members of the House of Commons from the largest party, but
the law does not exclude senators or other unelected persons from
entering the cabinet.
Parliament and parties
the existence of
two houses of parliament was originally due to the large differences in
population and influence of the provinces that made up the Canadian
confederation; in view of this circumstance, the provinces receive
different quotas in each chamber. As of the beginning of the 2020s, the
lower house of parliament, the House of Commons, has 338 deputies, and
the upper house, the Senate, has 105 members. Senators are appointed by
the Governor General on a regional basis on the recommendation of the
Prime Minister of Canada, after which they remain in office until they
reach the age of 75. The House of Commons is elected at a general
majoritarian election, which, according to a law passed in 2007, must be
held no later than the third Monday in October of the fourth year after
the previous election. At the same time, elections to the House of
Commons may be held more frequently, since the Cabinet of Ministers of
Canada, by law, retains its powers only with the consent of more than
half of the deputies. Thus, if none of the parties receives a majority
of seats in the House of Commons, a minority government is formed, but
it must seek compromises with deputies from other parties, and if it
fails to do this, elections are called ahead of schedule.
Elections to the House of Commons are held on a party basis. Canada is a
multi-party democracy with over 20 registered political parties with at
least 250 members by 2015. However, only a few federal parties dominate
the political life of the country. In the first half century of
confederation, there was actually a two-party system similar to that
that existed in Great Britain: the Liberal and Conservative parties
fought for power. The third party first gained significant influence in
the early 1920s when the Progressive Party of Canada became the official
opposition party. Since the early 1960s, the third federal party has
been the New Democratic Party (NDP), which has taken political positions
to the left of center and advocated the evolution of Canada into a
welfare state. Since 1993, the Quebec Bloc has been permanently present
in the federal parliament, participating in elections only in the
province of Quebec and having received in its history from 4 federal
mandates in 2011 to 54 mandates (and official opposition seats) in 1993.
Candidates for provincial and Yukon legislative assemblies are also
nominated by political parties. At the provincial level, local branches
of the NDP or provincial-level parties that do not have federal
representation may play leading roles alongside conservatives and
liberals. In the remaining two territories, as well as at the municipal
level, candidates participate in elections on a personal basis, and not
as party representatives.
lobbyists
Lobbying is part of the
Canadian political system. As in the United States, Canadian lobbyists
are required to undergo registration, which involves the disclosure and
publication of a significant amount of information. Lobbyists are
federally regulated by the Lobbying Act of 1989 and the Lobbyist Code of
Conduct. The number of lobbyists in Canada is quite large. As of March
2014, there were 5,178 registered lobbyists active at the federal level.
At the regional level, there are registered lobbyists, whose activities
are regulated by the legal acts of the provinces. Thus, in Ontario, by
March 2014, 1,663 lobbyists were registered.
By the beginning of the 21st century, Canada is divided into 10
provinces and 3 territories.
Regions with multiple provinces or
territories have their own names. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince
Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador are known as Atlantic
Canada, and the first three are also known as the Maritime Provinces.
Ontario and Quebec are often considered separately, but sometimes they
are combined into Central Canada. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and
British Columbia are known as Western Canada, but when British Columbia
is considered separately, the other three are called the Canadian
Prairies provinces. Finally, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and
Nunavut are collectively defined as the Canadian North.
The
fundamental difference between a province and a territory is enshrined
in the country's constitution. The provinces have their own
constitutional powers, while the Canadian Parliament delegates powers to
the territories. For a long time, the territories were actually governed
by federal officials, but since the 1980s, federal laws have established
their own legislative assemblies and executive bodies in each territory,
to which the government of Canada is gradually transferring powers
comparable to those of the provinces. As a result, decision-making at
the local level began to play a greater role, and the authorities of the
territories became more under the control of voters.
All
provinces have elected unicameral legislative assemblies, from among the
deputies of which the prime minister and government cabinet are then
selected. In each province, the sovereign is represented by a lieutenant
governor, appointed after consultation by the governor general, usually
for a 5-year term. The functions of a lieutenant governor at the
provincial level roughly correspond to those of a governor general at
the federal level.
Provincial jurisdiction extends to local and
private matters, including property and civil rights, civil law,
municipal government, education and health (including hospitals),
provincial company charters, licensing, administration and sale of
public land, and direct provincial taxation. . In addition, provincial
premiers regularly meet with each other or with the Prime Minister of
Canada to discuss the boundaries of the jurisdiction of the federal and
provincial governments on specific issues. The purpose of the meetings
is to preserve the structural integrity of the country while taking into
account the interests and aspirations of the provinces as much as
possible.
Historically, five provinces (Nova Scotia, Prince
Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec) have had a county as
their main structural unit. The counties in these provinces were once
created on the model of the counties of England and performed the same
administrative, legal and other functions. However, in New Brunswick,
Prince Edward Island and Quebec, most of the functions eventually passed
either to the provinces themselves or to the municipal authorities, and
the counties retain their significance only as objects of land law. In
Ontario, most of the counties retained their functions, and in Nova
Scotia, mainly rural counties. In the northern part of Ontario, a
division into districts (English districts) has been introduced; in
addition, counties and parishes coexist in Alberta, and in Quebec,
following an administrative reorganization, the 71 former counties are
divided among 95 new municipal regional counties, 3 urban communities
and 1 regional administration.
The next level of local government
in Canada is represented by over 4,500 legally recognized municipalities
and local councils. The powers of local authorities include resolving
issues related to the daily life of members of municipal communities,
their well-being and protection. Local councils, in particular, regulate
the activities of schools, libraries and municipal services.
Quebec is the only province of modern Canada in which the
French-speaking population is the majority, which has formed a distinct
culture from the rest of Canada. Historically, this particularity of
Quebec was taken into account to one degree or another by legislators at
first in Great Britain and then sovereign Canada, however, a significant
part of Quebec residents support its full political independence, which
they see as a guarantee of the survival of Quebecers as an ethnic
community. Separatist tendencies in Quebec played a key role in Canadian
domestic politics in the last decades of the 20th century. Their level
of support is constantly fluctuating. So, in 1976, the Quebec Party won
the provincial elections, putting forward the slogan of "sovereign
association" - political separation while maintaining close economic
ties. Just four years later, only 40% of the province's voters voted for
secession in a referendum on Quebec's independence, but in 1995, in a
second referendum on the same topic, secessionists won by only one
percent. At the same time, 60% of the French-speaking residents of the
province supported the idea of independence, and 9 out of every 10
English-speaking Quebecers voted against. In 2000, based on an agreement
between the federal and provincial governments, the Clarity of
Referendum Act was passed, according to which any future referendum on
the independence of this province must contain a clearly formulated
question and a clearly defined majority criterion and be approved by the
House of Commons of Canada.
The Canadian authorities have been
trying for a long time to come to an agreement with Quebec, within the
framework of which a political balance will be achieved between the
federal center and the provincial authorities. Reaching such an
agreement would allow Quebec to become the last province to ratify
Canada's constitution. One step in this direction was the Meech Lake
Conference, which discussed the official recognition of Quebec as a
separate society and the return of the veto to the provinces. These
plans, however, did not receive support from the other two provinces,
Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador. A few years later, the
Charlottetown Agreement was put to a national referendum, under which it
was proposed to grant greater autonomy to both Quebec and Canada's
indigenous communities; this proposal was rejected by voters both in
Quebec itself and in the western provinces. On November 27, 2006, the
House of Commons of Canada passed a resolution recognizing that "Quebecs
constitute a separate nation within a united Canada". In 2014, the
Supreme Court of Canada cited the existence of Quebec's "special legal
traditions and community values" in a constitutional law ruling.
Throughout Canada, with the exception of Quebec, the common law
inherited from Great Britain applies. Quebec has a hybrid legal system
that combines elements of common and Romano-Germanic law with the
Napoleonic Code. In particular, Quebec public law is based on European
civil law, while private law is based on common law principles. Criminal
law in Canada is entirely under the jurisdiction of the federal
government and is uniform throughout the country, but the provinces are
authorized to independently implement its provisions on their territory,
for which there is a multi-level system of criminal courts. In most
provinces and all territories, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
performs the function of enforcing federal criminal laws with the
exception of Ontario and Quebec, which have their own police. However,
the law obliges large cities and other settlements with sufficient
population density to maintain a police force sufficient to maintain law
and order in their territory. Most major cities have their own police
departments, and other localities have policing contracts with RCMP or
provincial police officers.
Constitution
The Constitution of
Canada is the basic law of the country, setting the framework for the
rest of the legislation and taking precedence over other laws. The
Canadian constitution is not a single document, but a set of laws of
British and Canadian origin proper, in addition to them, including
uncodified elements known as constitutional customs.
The
formation of the Canadian constitution took place in several stages,
starting with the Constitution Act of 1867, also known as the British
North America Act, which declared the creation of the Dominion of
Canada. The Statute of Westminster of 1931 proclaimed all the countries
of the British Commonwealth independent and equal with Great Britain,
giving them full legal independence, with the exception of those areas
that they themselves consider it necessary to leave in the jurisdiction
of the former mother country. In particular, in the case of Canada, the
UK remained in charge of the relationship between the federal
authorities and the provinces. This provision was only abolished by the
1982 Constitutional Act. At the same time, this law included the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the country's constitution
and guaranteed the rights of indigenous peoples, without specifying
which rights they were talking about.
The elements of the
Canadian constitution, in addition to the constitutional acts, are the
statutes of the Parliaments of Great Britain and Canada concerning the
succession to the throne, the appointment and powers of the Governor
General, the Senate, the House of Commons and the conduct of elections,
as well as the statutes of the provincial legislatures concerning the
functioning of these bodies. Further changes to the Canadian
constitution can only be made with the support of a majority in both
houses of Parliament and at least seven provinces with a total
population of at least half the national population.
Courts
The courts in Canada are an independent branch of government. Beginning
with the Constitution Act of 1867, the British-derived doctrine of the
rule of law has been incorporated into the Canadian constitution.
According to it, the actions of the government and the police forces
must be determined by laws, which prevents the arbitrary exercise of
power. Another important aspect of this doctrine is the rejection of the
retroactive application of laws.
Each province in Canada has a
tiered system of courts, including police, appellate, district, and
superior courts. Since 1949, the federal Supreme Court of Canada has
been the last step in the process of appealing judgments. The lower
instances at the national level are:
the Federal Court of Canada,
dealing with claims relating to the federal government and federal
taxes, copyright and patent law;
Military Court of Appeal;
Tax
Court of Canada.
Since common law prevails in Canada in most
cases, case law is an important source of legality. Decisions of higher
courts are binding on lower courts, and decisions of the Supreme Court
of Canada are binding on all instances except itself. In Quebec, for
private law judges, the code of laws proper is the highest legal
authority; although previous decisions, in particular those issued by
higher instances, are widely used in making new ones, they are not
binding.
Judges of all instances, with the exception of Probate
Judges and Police Judges of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, are appointed
by the Governor General of Canada, and their salaries and pensions are
determined by the Parliament of Canada. Upon reaching the age of 75, a
judge must retire.
Between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, Canada experienced what is often referred to as the "civil rights revolution" and which largely culminated in the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Within its framework, steps were taken to provide equal civil rights to women, the disabled, representatives of sexual and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples. Laws were passed at the federal and local levels that prohibited discrimination based on race or ethnicity, religious and political beliefs, and sexual orientation. The process continues after 1982, but the realization of civil rights is difficult for some categories of the population - primarily representatives of indigenous peoples. Among the issues receiving significant public outcry is the federal government's lack of efforts to protect the lives and dignity of indigenous women (an independent national commission that reviewed 4,000 murders and kidnappings over 30 years assessed the scale of these phenomena as genocide in 2019). A number of indigenous communities do not have access to quality drinking water; the federal government, which planned to provide such access to all communities in Canada by April 2021, has failed to meet this commitment. The number of complaints about discrimination and aggression against ethnic minorities by the police is growing. From a human rights standpoint, the government of Quebec adopted a 2019 ban on the wearing of symbols of religious affiliation by public servants that has been widely criticized.
The functions of the Canadian Armed Forces are to protect security,
interests and values, and to participate in the maintenance of
international security and peace. The armed forces include the Canadian
Army, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Canadian Navy, which
have their own commands. In addition, military formations of all
branches of the armed forces may be subordinate to the Joint Operations
Command, the Special Operations Forces Command, or the North American
Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The official Commander-in-Chief of
the Canadian Armed Forces is the British Monarch, represented by the
Governor General, but the actual leadership is exercised by the Minister
of National Defence, a civilian appointed by the Prime Minister.
Management is carried out with the help of the National Defense
Headquarters and the Council of the Armed Forces.
The armed
forces are recruited (for a period of 3 to 9 years in the age range from
17 to 34 years), command cadres are trained in national military
colleges and officer reserve schools in Canada, as well as in command
and staff colleges in the UK and the USA. The percentage of the
population employed in the Canadian Armed Forces and defense spending
relative to the total economy is lower than in other NATO countries.
According to the CIA World Factbook, defense spending was 1.4% of
Canada's GDP in 2020; in absolute terms, in the second half of the
2010s, $25.7-27.6 billion was spent on defense annually. The same source
estimates the number of regular servicemen of the Canadian Armed Forces
in 2021 at 70 thousand people (of which 23 thousand in the ground
forces, 12 in the air force and 12 in the navy). Another 19 thousand
people are in the volunteer irregular troops of the reserve; this number
includes 5.5 thousand Canadian Rangers.
The Canadian Armed Forces
are equipped with both domestic and foreign-made weapons and military
equipment. The United States is the leading supplier of weapons to
Canada, but deliveries are also made from European countries, Australia
and Israel. The Canadian Ground Forces are armed with, in particular,
the Leopard 2 main tanks (Germany), towed 155-mm howitzers M777 and
105-mm C3 close combat support guns of American production, as well as
more than 500 domestically developed LAV III light infantry fighting
vehicles. The 1st Canadian Aviation Division has 11 wings, which are
armed with various combat, transport, search and rescue and training
aircraft. The main combat aircraft of the Canadian Air Force is the
CF-188 Hornet fighter-bomber. Naval aviation includes CP-140 Aurora
patrol aircraft and CH-148 Cyclone helicopters. Tactical aviation is
represented by CH-146 Griffon helicopters. Canada's Atlantic and Pacific
Flotillas are armed with patrol frigates, coastal defense ships and
medium-range patrol submarines.
Over the years of its existence,
Canada has taken part in a number of armed conflicts, including on the
side of the Entente in World War I and on the side of the anti-Hitler
coalition in World War II. In the second half of the 20th and early 21st
centuries, Canadian military personnel participated in dozens of
peacekeeping operations in different regions of the world. In 1956,
during the days of the Suez Crisis, Canadian politician Lester Pearson
initiated the creation of the UN Peacekeeping Force, and Canadian
General I. L. M. Burns led their first contingent in the Sinai
Peninsula. In addition, Canadian military personnel have participated in
peacekeeping missions not directly sanctioned by the UN, but carried out
by various international coalitions, including NATO operations in the
Balkans and Afghanistan. Up to 14% of the total strength of the Canadian
Armed Forces served abroad - the second highest among all NATO
countries, except for the United States. The Disaster Assistance
Response Team participated in rescue operations after Hurricane Mitch in
Honduras (1998), the tsunami in Southeast Asia (2004), the earthquakes
in Haiti (2010) and Nepal (2015) and others disasters. In the Global
Peace Index, Canada was ranked 6th out of 163 countries in 2020.
After the independence of the Dominion of Canada, it was initially
represented in international relations by British diplomats, as it was
assumed that it could not have its own foreign policy. Canada gradually
sought for itself an independent role in foreign relations with the
United States (in particular, in the preparation of the Washington
Treaty of 1871, in the dispute over the border of Alaska and a series of
negotiations on the resumption of free trade), and then with the former
mother country. In 1880, A. T. Galt was appointed Canada's first High
Commissioner to Great Britain (a position equivalent to an embassy). In
1909, the Canadian Department of External Affairs (later the Department
of Foreign Affairs) was established.
After the First World War,
Canada, along with other British dominions, was among the signatories of
the Treaty of Versailles, and then became a full member of the League of
Nations. In 1927, Vincent Massey became Canada's first official envoy to
Washington; in the next two years, Canadian diplomatic missions were
opened in France and Japan, and in 1939 in Belgium and the Netherlands.
After World War II, Canada began to play a more prominent role in
international politics. She became one of the founding countries of the
NATO bloc, her military formations participated in the Korean War and
represented NATO in European countries. Lester Pearson, who represented
Canada, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for peace initiatives that
contributed to the end of the 1956 Suez Crisis. Canada's highest
achievements in the field of diplomacy are associated with its position
as a mediating state in this and other international conflicts.
Although the level of Canadian involvement in NATO declined by the
1970s, it continues to actively cooperate in the military sphere with
the United States. In the late 1950s, she joined the North American
Aerospace Defense Command, which is dominated by the United States.
In 1990, at the end of the Cold War, Canada became a member of the
Organization of American States. It is a member of the Big Seven, an
informal organization whose members are seven of the countries with the
most developed economies in the world, and in 1999 became one of the
founding countries of the expanded interstate forum - the Big Twenty.
Other major international organizations of which Canada is a member are
the OSCE, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Commonwealth of
Nations, and the Francophonie. Canada hosts the offices of two global
cooperation organizations, the International Civil Aviation Organization
and the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The national currency is the Canadian dollar. Throughout history, its
rate has changed from fixed to floating and vice versa. The Canadian
dollar has been floating since 1970; during this time, the minimum
exchange rate was $0.62 (in 2002) and the maximum was $1.07 (in 2007).
The Canadian economy is one of the most developed in the world. As
of 2020, Canada's real GDP was estimated at $1.742 trillion, ranking it
15th in the world. Real per capita income in 2020 was $45.9 thousand,
the 34th highest in the world. Estimated budget revenues in 2017 were
$649.6 billion and expenditures were $665.7 billion. The budget deficit
in 2017 is about 1% of GDP, the public debt is 89.7% of GDP. Canada's
external debt in 2019 was $2,125 billion.
The structure of the
economy has undergone significant changes over the years of the
country's existence. If in 1870 the most significant sector of the
economy was agriculture (37%, with 36% in the service sector, 22% in
industry and 4% in the extraction of natural resources), then by 1997
Canada's economy had acquired distinct post-industrial features. 2/3 of
the total national product and almost 3/4 of its labor force was in the
service sector; industry accounted for 18% of the national product and
15.5% of workers, while agriculture and the extraction of natural
resources accounted for less than 15% of the national product and
slightly more than 5% of workers. In 2010, in Canada, 39% of the total
population was employed in the service sector, 10% in manufacturing, and
1% in agriculture. Due to the growth in the number of working women in
the first half century after World War II, the labor force participation
rate increased from 55% to 64.8% (among women - from 24.7% to 57.4%).
The national unemployment rate, which reached 9.9% in the first half of
the 1980s, has since declined and is estimated at 5.67% in 2019. The
Gini coefficient - an index of income inequality between the richest and
poorest segments of the population - in Canada, as in other countries
with developed economies, is gradually increasing. However, by the early
2020s, it remained the lowest of the G7 countries in Canada, and among
OECD countries it ranked 9th before the government redistribution of
income and a place closer to the middle of the list after this
redistribution.
Most of the Canadian economy belongs to the
private sector. A number of national companies were privatized in the
1990s, although some transport and electrical companies, as well as
postal services, remain state-owned. By the end of the 1960s, the share
of foreign capital in Canadian industry was approaching 60%, and in the
field of oil and gas production it exceeded 80%. By the mid-1980s,
thanks to the introduction of state control over foreign investment,
this share was reduced to 44% and 39%, respectively. According to the
Heritage Foundation index, economic freedom in Canada as of 2022 is
higher than in the United States, Japan and most Western European
countries. Canadian governments have long pursued a policy of
protectionism aimed at supporting the competitiveness of domestic
enterprises. The phasing out of this position began in the 1980s, and
the signing of the NAFTA agreement with Mexico in 1994 forced Canada to
speed up the process. However, Canadian agriculture continues to receive
significant subsidies to compete with similarly subsidized agricultural
commodities from the US and EU.
Agriculture
The basis of
Canada's agriculture is made up of farms, of which by 2006 there were
approximately 230,000 with an average area of about 300 hectares each.
Only 1/12 of the total area of Canada is suitable for growing crops.
These lands are mostly located on the prairies, but the largest variety
of crops and the highest yields are found in southwestern British
Columbia and southern Ontario, where vegetables and fruits are grown. On
the prairies, grains and oilseeds (primarily wheat and rapeseed) are
mainly grown, large areas are set aside for pastures for livestock.
Southwestern Ontario produces corn, soybeans, and white beans. Canada
accounts for about 80% of the world's maple syrup production (30 million
liters in 2006). Animal husbandry occupies an important place in the
structure of agriculture: in 2007, there were 15.9 million heads of
cattle (including 1.5 million dairy herds), 14.5 million heads of pigs
and approximately 660 million heads of poultry in the country. Fur
farming is developed, mainly specializing in growing minks. Canada is
one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products: according
to the World Bank, in 2012 the country ranked 4th in the world in wheat
exports - 16.3 million tons worth $5.7 billion. It also occupies one of
the first places in the world in the export of frozen fish.
Commodity industries
Since colonial times, the raw material sector
has played a large role in the Canadian economy. In the country, more
than half of whose area is occupied by forests, the timber industry is
developed. The best products come from the forests of the West Coast,
where the climate favors the growth of large trees with quality wood. At
the beginning of the 21st century, about 190,000 m³ of industrial wood
and more than 30,000 m³ of wood for processing into pulp were produced
in Canada per year. Canada is the world's leading exporter of pulp and
paper products, with forestry products accounting for more of the
nation's exports than farm products, fish and minerals combined.
Canada ranks 3rd in the world (after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia) in
terms of explored oil fields and 7th in the world in terms of oil
production. In the first half of the 1980s, it was among the top five
countries in the world in the production of potash and asbestos (more
than 20% of world volumes), the extraction of nickel, molybdenum, sulfur
and uranium (more than 15%), as well as copper, lead, gold, silver and
aluminum (more than 5%). By the beginning of the 21st century, Canada
produced the largest volume of uranium ore in the world (12.6 thousand
tons per year in terms of uranium), the country is among the leaders in
the extraction of zinc, cadmium and titanium. The mining industry plays
a key role in the development of the Canadian North: although there are
not as many workers directly engaged in mining as in the past, a
significant number of people are employed in the iron and steel industry
and in transportation.
Industry
The engineering and food
industries accounted for about 40% of the total value of Canadian
industrial production in 2017. Canadian iron and steel industry has
advanced technologies. The metalworking industry produces parts for
automobile engines, mining machinery, and household electrical
appliances. After the conclusion of the Canadian-American Automobile
Treaty, branches of American automobile firms began to appear in Canada,
and in the 1980s, factories of Japanese companies joined them. With an
annual turnover of $11.5 billion in 2005, Bombardier, Canada's largest
transportation engineering company, ranked 4th among companies in this
sector in North America and was one of the world's leading aerospace
manufacturers. The shipbuilding and ship repair industry is well
developed.
Steel plants with a production volume of 2 to 4.5
million tons per year each are located in Hamilton, Nanticoke, Sault
Ste. Marie. Canada is one of the world's leading producers of mineral
fertilizers; enterprises of this industry are mainly concentrated in
Alberta, more than half of the products are exported. In the last
decades of the 20th century, high-tech enterprises and the electronics
industry developed rapidly. More than 3/4 of Canadian industrial
enterprises are concentrated in the region between Quebec City and
Windsor in Ontario, on the border with the center of the American
automobile industry, Detroit. More than half of all Canadian industrial
products are exported.
Energy
Canada is one of the top 10
countries in the world in terms of electricity generation (644 billion
kWh in 2020). Canadian geography offers great opportunities for
hydropower. From this point of view, most promising rivers have built
powerful hydroelectric power plants that produce about 60% of Canadian
electricity (including a cascade of hydroelectric power plants with a
capacity of 16,000 MW in the La Grande river basin). Another 12% of
electricity is produced at nuclear power plants.
In conditions
when the country's hydropower potential has already been largely
exhausted, and nuclear energy is not being developed further due to
concerns about its safety, the share of electricity produced at thermal
power plants, primarily using coal, is growing. Canada is able to
provide its own needs for oil and oil products and has surpluses of
natural gas and electricity that are exported. Alternative energy is
relatively underdeveloped: Canada accounts for 3% of global wind energy,
which is 4% of the total electricity generated in the country, but solar
energy produces only 0.5% of energy, and biofuels and geothermal
stations - a total of 2% .
Financial sector
In the first decade of the 21st century, about a
quarter of Canada's GDP came from the financial and business services
sector (including the banking and credit sector, insurance and stock
exchange activities). To operate in Canada, a commercial bank must
obtain a license from the federal government. Commercial banking is
overseen by a number of federal agencies, including the Treasury
Department, the Bank of Canada, the Canadian Financial Consumption
Agency, and the Office of the Banking and Investment Ombudsman. By 2014,
there were more than 30 Canadian banks and more than 50 subsidiaries and
branches of foreign banks. Canadian laws allow an unlimited number of
branches for each bank, which has led to a small group of leading
companies in the country that control most of the banking sector. The
Big Five are Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, Toronto-Dominion Bank,
Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Among other
things, banks provide mortgage services, but the law prohibits them from
selling insurance policies. The largest companies in the Canadian
insurance market are Manulife Financial and Fairfax Financial; among the
leading corporations providing various financial services are also Sun
Life Financial, Power Corporation of Canada and Brookfield Asset
Management.
Stock exchanges in Canada operate in Toronto,
Montreal and Winnipeg. The Alberta and Vancouver stock exchanges merged
in 1999 to form the Canadian Venture Exchange.
Tourism and
recreational business
An important role in the Canadian economy is
played by the tourism and recreational services industry, including the
hotel and restaurant business. By 1990, 5% of Canadian workers were
employed in the tourism business, and in 2005, tourism revenues amounted
to $14 billion. The country was visited by 36 million tourists this
year, including 14 million from the US; attracts Canada and tourists
from China. The main tourist centers are large cities (Quebec, Montreal,
Toronto, Vancouver). Popular natural sites are Niagara Falls, the
Columbia Icefield in the Rocky Mountains, national parks and lakes.
In the vast outback areas of Canada, transport links are not
developed, but regions with a significant population are covered by a
dense network of roads. The longest road in Canada - the Trans-Canada
Highway - connects all ten provinces and stretches for 7821 km from St.
John's in Newfoundland to Victoria (British Columbia). The total length
of roads at the beginning of the 21st century exceeded 1.4 million km.
Canadians have at their disposal numerous private vehicles (on average,
1 car is for less than 2 residents of the country).
The length of
railroad tracks per capita in Canada is one of the highest in the world.
The railways are mainly concentrated in the south of the country, but
some regional branches reach Churchill on the Hudson Bay in the north,
Musoni on the James Bay and Shefferville in the central part of the
Labrador Peninsula. Most railroads are used by transcontinental
transport companies - Canadian National Railway (privatized in 1995) and
Canadian Pacific Railway (joint stock company). Rail transport is
occupied mostly by freight traffic, while the volume of passenger rail
traffic is declining. They are mainly dealt with by the crown
corporation VIA Rail, established in 1977; in addition, there are
regional passenger rail systems in the major metropolitan areas of
Toronto (GO Transit, since 1967), Montreal (1984) and Vancouver (1995).
Inland water transportation is carried out primarily along the St.
Lawrence Sea Route - a 3,769 km long system of natural reservoirs and
canals connecting St. Lawrence Bay with the upper reaches of Lake
Superior. Ferry communication is developed in coastal areas. By sea, the
supply of remote settlements of the Canadian Arctic is mainly carried
out. Air Canada and its affiliated local companies operate the majority
of air freight and passenger traffic within the country. A number of
smaller companies serve local airlines, including flights to remote
regions inaccessible to other vehicles. The country's largest airport,
Toronto Pearson International Airport, handles ⅓ of Canada's air
passenger traffic and ⅔ of air cargo. Two more major airports (Pierre
Elliot Trudeau International Airport and cargo and charter Mirabell)
operate in Montreal.
About 40% of Canada's cargo turnover is
accounted for by pipeline transport, including more than a quarter - by
gas pipelines. At the beginning of the 21st century, the total length of
pipelines in Canada exceeded 360,000 km (of which 27% were main lines).
The pipeline network is managed by the state.
Canada has one of
the highest per capita numbers of phones in the world. Almost every
household in the country has at least one telephone. Canada also has one
of the highest percentages of Internet users in the world. These
circumstances contribute to the development of the high-tech sector in
the country, mainly concentrated in the Ottawa Valley; Canada is the
world leader in fiber optic communications. The telecommunications
market, originally controlled by three large private companies, has
become more competitive since the 1980s. Competition in the satellite
communications market began in 2000, when the monopoly of Telesat
Corporation was eliminated.
In 2020, Canada ranked 12th in the world in terms of exports and 11th
in terms of imports. At the end of 2021 and early 2022, the total
monthly value of Canadian imports fluctuated between $54.1 and 61.1
billion, exports between $57 and 63.6 billion, the country's total trade
surplus was $2.5 billion in the 4th quarter 2021 and $9 billion in the
1st quarter of 2022.
Canada is one of the few industrialized
countries that are net energy exporters. Crude oil in 2020 was the main
component of Canadian exports (about 13% of the total value).
Significant shares of exports were finished cars, automotive parts, gold
and lumber. Canada is the world's leading exporter of lumber, aluminium,
potash, rapeseed and dried legumes. The first places in imports were
also occupied by cars (including trucks) and car parts, broadcasting
equipment and gold.
The United States is Canada's main trading
partner. After a series of unsuccessful negotiations with that country
to create a free trade area, progress was made in 1965 when the
Canadian-American Automobile Treaty eliminated import duties on
automotive products. Thanks to this, Canada began to produce a large
number of cars for sale in the United States. In 1987, the
Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement was signed, in 1993 it was
transformed into a trilateral (with Mexico) agreement on the North
American Free Trade Area. As of 2017, the US-Canadian trade relationship
was the most comprehensive in the world, with a combined value of $680
billion a year in goods and services, and $800 billion in bilateral
securities investment. More than 3/4 of all goods exported from Canada
are sent to the USA.
Another important partner of Canada has
historically been Great Britain. The former colony supplied more goods
to the British Isles than it received. The decline in the volume of
trade in this direction came after the Second World War, and by the end
of the 20th century, Japan became Canada's second largest trade partner,
and by the end of the second decade of the next century, China. The UK
also remains in Canada's top five trading partners along with the
European Union and Mexico. Since 1947, Canada has been an active
participant in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which
helped ease barriers to free trade among the nations of the world.
Society and culture
Canada traditionally scores highly in the
comprehensive assessment of community development known as the Human
Development Index. The country's overall score rose from 0.85 out of 1
in 1990 to 0.929 in 2019. In the world ranking for this indicator in
2019, Canada ranked 16th (and during the 2010s it repeatedly entered the
top ten). This estimate may be lower if social and gender inequalities
are taken into account, as well as an estimate of "planetary loads".
Education
Since the founding of Canada in 1867, the provinces and
territories have made their own education policies. The provinces fund
schooling and partially higher education, while the federal government
provides funds for territorial education and special education programs
(including within the military and correctional institutions) and
participates in the funding of provincial higher education.
Secondary education in Canada includes 12 years of school (of which the
first 8 are considered primary education) and, depending on the
province, 1 or 2 years of kindergarten. 92% of Canadians aged 25-64 have
completed high school or equivalent, well above the OECD average of 79%.
The relative equality of opportunities for secondary education provides
an average high level of Canadian students, according to the results of
international PISA tests in the 2010s, showing some of the best results
in the world in reading, mathematics and science.
Higher
education in Canada has traditionally been provided by universities, the
first of which were founded in the 17th-18th centuries. Over time,
however, Canadians have the opportunity to continue their education
after graduation and in other types of educational institutions -
colleges and institutes. In total, there are over 70 educational
institutions in Canada, the completion of which is accompanied by an
academic degree; the largest in terms of student numbers are the
University of Quebec, which has a network of city branches, and the
University of Toronto. In addition to these, there are over 200
community colleges providing vocational education. In some of these
colleges, more than 50 thousand students study at the same time, and
research institutes operate on their basis. The coverage of the higher
education system in Canada is one of the highest in the world: already
at the end of the 20th century, about a million full-time students and
250,000 part-time students studied at universities and colleges in
Canada every year. In 2018, Canada ranked 1st among OECD countries in
terms of percentage of population with post-secondary education, with
56% of people aged 25-64 holding an academic degree or completing a
professional course from a post-secondary institution. In the Shanghai
World University Rankings 2021, 4 Canadian universities (Toront, British
Columbia, McGill and McMaster) were in the top 100 in the world, and 20
were in the top 500.
The science
The oldest scientific
societies in Canada originated in Lower Canada in the 1820s, and the
country's first scientific journal, the Canadian Naturalist and
Geologist, began publication in 1856. The Royal Society of Canada is an
organization that brings together the country's leading scientists,
regardless of the field of knowledge, was founded in 1882. Since the
1920s, associations of professional researchers have been formed, the
first and most influential of which was the Canadian Institute of
Chemistry.
Among the most developed fields of knowledge in Canada
are earth sciences, chemistry, forestry and agronomy. All of them have a
pronounced practical orientation, although there are achievements in
theoretical science (an example is the contribution of J. T. Wilson to
the theory of plate tectonics). Notable successes have been achieved by
Canadian doctors who were at the origins of the creation of insulin, the
polio vaccine and the pacemaker. Canadian chemists have made significant
contributions to the development of new drugs, biomedicine and genetic
research, work on metals and alloys within national and international
research institutions. Canadian agronomists are known for their success
in breeding triticale and expanding the use of canola (rapeseed), as
well as the development of pest control methods for agriculture.
Canada has a national health insurance system. Its task is to provide
every inhabitant of the country with access to medical (including
hospital) services. The cost of this service is paid from general taxes
or special mandatory contributions to health insurance programs. The
National Health System has covered hospital costs since 1957 and
physicians since 1966. Although the program itself is federal, the
nuances of its implementation remain the responsibility of individual
provinces (for example, dental services are included in the paid health
care basket only in some provinces and not for all categories of the
population), and the costs of its maintenance are divided between the
provinces and the federal government.
Since government-funded
health services are available by default to all residents of the
country, the growth and aging of the population lead to an increase in
the share of health care spending in the budget. The provinces are
forced to compensate for this process either by reducing the basket of
services, or by increasing mandatory contributions to insurance
programs. Thus, in the 1990s, some hospitals closed, and the share of
patients' own participation in paying for medicines increased. The
Canadian Medical Association says government funding for healthcare is
insufficient and that this is leading to overcrowded hospitals and long
waiting lists for non-urgent surgeries. Many citizens supplement the
state-paid package of medical services with the help of private health
insurance. In addition, physician services are not equally available in
different regions: in rural areas and remote geographical areas, access
to medical care is often problematic. Total healthcare spending in
Canada in the second decade of the 21st century fluctuated between 10.2%
and 11% of GDP.
The most common cause of death in Canada is
cancer. Coronary heart disease (2.3 million patients in 2011/12),
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (2 million) and strokes (700,000
Canadians were living with the consequences of a stroke in 2011/12) are
widespread. Canada has one of the highest percentages of obese people in
the OECD. Lack of physical activity, unhealthy diet and smoking
contribute to the development of chronic diseases.
As of the early 2010s, more than 3/4 of Canada's population claimed
to belong to an organized religious community. The most common were
Catholicism (about 40% of the population as a whole in the country,
about 80% in Quebec and more than 50% in New Brunswick) and
Protestantism (about 20%). Among the various Protestant denominations,
the United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada and
Lutheranism were in the lead in terms of the number of parishioners. The
ethnic diversity of Canada, as a country with a large number of
immigrants and their descendants, is also reflected in religious
diversity: at the end of the 20th century, the proportion of Muslims,
Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists in the population increased sharply. In the
early 2010s, there were more than a million Muslims in the country (3.2%
of the population), of which the majority are Sunnis. Two-thirds of
Canadian Muslims live in three major cities - Toronto, Montreal and
Vancouver.
Cultural policy
Due to its proximity to the United
States, Canadian culture is heavily influenced by American culture. In
the late 1950s, the Royal Commission on the National Development of the
Arts, Literature and Science (known as the Massey Commission) warned
that Canadian culture was becoming "invisible" and indistinguishable
from US culture as a result of years of "American intrusion into film,
radio and the press." In the wake of the commission's report, the
Government of Canada has made recommendations for the media to promote
the "Canadian information product", including books, television programs
and magazines. Efforts to promote the Canadian cultural product made it
possible to preserve a distinct, distinct cultural life from the
American one.
Canada has numerous councils, advisory groups and
foundations at the federal and provincial levels that support the arts.
In particular, in 1957, the Arts Council of Canada was created, partly
receiving funding from the federal government, and partly in the form of
donations. Federal cultural policy agencies include Heritage Canada, the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the National Film Board.
Founded in 1953, the National Library of Canada holds copies of every
book ever published in the country.
There are over 2,000 museums
and historical parks in Canada. The most important art museum is the
National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the cities of Toronto, Montreal
and Vancouver, as well as the University of Toronto have large public
collections. Toronto is home to Canada's largest general museum, the
Royal Ontario Museum. Thematic museums include the Canadian War Museum
in Ottawa, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British
Columbia, the archaeological and ethnographic museums of Newfoundland
and Labrador, Montreal and Winnipeg, and the Maritime Museum of the
Atlantic[en] in Halifax. The largest historical monument in Canada is
the reconstructed Louisbourg Fortress on Cape Breton Island (Nova
Scotia).
Canadian multiculturalism
Representatives of numerous
ethnic groups and speakers of different languages live in Canada.
Throughout its history, the influence of British, French and American
cultures has been dominant, but elements of other cultures also
penetrated the general cultural background. In the 1960s, the Royal
Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism recommended a series of
measures to support the French language and culture, but concluded that
Canadian culture was not truly dichotomous. In 1971, the government of
P. Trudeau officially proclaimed the doctrine of multiculturalism, which
emphasizes the recognition of the cultural characteristics of all
population groups and their contribution to the general cultural
background of the country.
At first, the policy of
multiculturalism was in the nature of supporting the cultural identity
of ethnic minorities and preserving their national traditions. Later,
however, it became part of the process of protecting the rights of
minorities, especially the indigenous peoples of Canada, and overcoming
discrimination. The very concept of multiculturalism has both supporters
and critics. In particular, writer Neil Bissundath argues that this
doctrine damages an authentic Canadian identity based on the interplay
of English and French cultures, while encouraging the display of ethnic
differences breeds a "psychology of separation" and prevents immigrants
from adapting to mainstream culture.
Nevertheless, the
contribution of various ethnic communities to the cultural background of
Canada is evident. This includes the revival of traditional Canadian
Indigenous arts, the thriving South Asian cuisine in Toronto and Italian
cuisine in Montreal, and Chinese theatrical traditions rooted in
Vancouver. The Chinese communities of Vancouver and Toronto, the Inuit
village, Little Jamaica in Toronto became the setting for contemporary
Canadian books and films. The prestigious national Polaris Music Prize,
which recognizes the best Canadian album of the year, has been
repeatedly won by representatives of ethnic music genres.
Literature and art
In accordance with the colonial history of Canada,
English and French-speaking traditions can be distinguished in local
literature. The first French-language works created on the territory of
modern Canada date back to the beginning of the 17th century, but in
Canada itself, the first books in French were published only from the
1830s. In the same years, Canadian English literature began with the
publication of the works of Thomas Haliberton. At the turn of the 19th
and 20th centuries, a number of works were created that became Canadian
literary classics - "The Golden Dog" by William Kirby, "Trail of 1908"
by Robert Service, "The Imperialist" by Sarah Duncan, humorous works by
Stephen Leacock and novels by Mazo de la Roche about the estate "
Jalna". A new generation of Canadian writers emerged in the 1940s and
1950s, and by the end of the 20th century, Canadian literature began to
gain international prominence. In 1979, the Acadian writer Antonine
Mailha was awarded the Prix Goncourt for Pelagie the Cart, Margaret
Atwood twice (in 2000 and 2019) won the Booker Prize, and in 2013 Alice
Munro became the Nobel laureate in literature.
Canadian painters of the 19th century were influenced by the European
school, but the themes of their canvases were often chosen by the nature
and life of their own country. So, Paul Kane, an Irish immigrant, in his
contemporary European style captured the landscapes of Canada and the
life of its indigenous population, voyagers and missionaries in his
works. At the beginning of the 20th century, the development of Canadian
visual arts centered around two Toronto groups of artists - the Canadian
Art Club and the so-called Group of Seven, the most famous member of
which was the landscape painter A. Y. Jackson. In the 1940s, the
Montreal Society of Automatists occupied a central place in the Canadian
visual arts, whose work followed the traditions of surrealism (leading
representatives - Jean-Paul Riopelle and Fernand Leduc), and by the
1960s, adherents of pop art and conceptual art came to the forefront.
art. In the 1960s, Canadian sculptors also moved away from traditional
forms, adopting such international styles as land art and minimalism.
At the turn of the century, video art and performance began to
compete with the traditional genres of fine art in Canada. New trends in
Canadian art are dedicated to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto.
During the 20th century, the art of the indigenous peoples of Canada,
especially Inuit stone sculpture and graphics, attracted attention. In
the 2nd half of the 20th century, the works of Canadian architects
Arthur Erickson (creator of the Canadian pavilion of the World
Exhibition in 1967), Douglas Cardinal and Eberhard Zeidler received
worldwide recognition.
Canadian music combines Native American
and European (English and French) musical traditions. An important role
in the development of Canadian national music was played by the
composers of the 1st half of the 20th century, Healy Willan, Claude
Champagne and John Weinzweig, in whose works classical genres acquired a
national flavor. Of the composers of the 2nd half of the 20th century,
Claude Vivier, known for his experimental approach, stands out. However,
performers brought particular fame to Canadian music. They include both
vocalists (Teresa Stratas, Nancy Argenta, Maureen Forrester, Lois
Marshall, John Vickers) and instrumentalists (pianists Glenn Gould,
Anton Curty, Oscar Peterson, guitarist Lyona Boyd, trumpeter Maynard
Ferguson) and musical groups (baroque Ensemble "Tafelmuzik"). In the
world of pop and rock music, Canadians also occupy a prominent place.
Some of Canada's best-known rock musicians include Neil Young, Joni
Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, The Band, The Guess Who and Barenaked Ladies.
In pop, the Cowboy Junkies, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Katherine Don
Lang, Celine Dion, Sarah MacLachlan, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette,
Shania Twain and Justin Bieber stand out.
The performing arts in
Canada have flourished since the 2nd half of the 20th century. In 1953,
the Stratford Shakespeare Festival was founded, which is very popular
among both Canadians and tourists, especially from the United States.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake Shaw Festival, the Blythe Theater Festival,
which specializes in plays by Canadian authors, and the Charlottetown
Musical Festival, also staging only Canadian works, are popular. The
most famous musical staged within its framework was Anne of Green Gables
based on the work of the same name by Lucy Maud Montgomery, which
subsequently successfully ran in London and on Broadway. An important
role in the development of Canadian avant-garde theater at the turn of
the century was played by Quebec directors Gilles Mayeux and Robert
Lepage. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have regular opera seasons, and
a permanent opera house has been built in Toronto. There are 3
international ballet companies in the country, including the National
Ballet of Canada, which often tours abroad, as well as the Jazz Ballet
of Montreal, which combines ballet technique with jazz music in its
productions. Cirque du Soleil has gained international fame, whose
productions, which include choreographic, circus and theatrical
elements, are distinguished by a through plot and a special aesthetic.
In the 21st century, the troupe includes more than 500 artists.
Since 1939, the development of cinema in the country has been carried
out by the National Film Administration, to which the Canadian Film
Development Corporation has been added since 1967. International film
festivals have been held in Toronto since 1976 and in Montreal since
1977. The relative cheapness of the Canadian dollar attracts foreign
film and television companies to the country, filming in the studios of
Toronto and Vancouver and on the streets of these cities, "playing" the
role of other settlements. Canadian documentary cinema enjoys a high
reputation, having received awards at international film festivals.
However, the main successes of Canadian filmmakers are in Hollywood.
Thanks to American cinema, Canadians such as Mac Sennett, Norman
Jewison, Ted Kotcheff, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Atom Egoyan, David
Cronenberg, Denis Arkan, Michael J. Fox, Keanu Reeves, Dan Aykroyd and
William Shatner have gained worldwide fame. Arcana's film "Jesus of
Montreal" won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989, and
his work "Invasion of the Barbarians" won the Oscar for Best Foreign
Language Film in 2003.
Mass media
In the Reporters Without
Borders Press Freedom Index, Canada ranked 14th out of 180 in 2021.
Canada's premier news outlet, Canadian Press, was founded in 1917. It
was founded and co-owned by leading Canadian newspapers. In Canada, the
daily national newspapers Globe and Mail and National Post are
published; the Toronto Star, despite its name, also circulates
throughout the country. The most popular weekly national publication is
Maclean's, the weekly magazine Hockey News has a large readership, but
magazines published in the USA are mainly distributed. In addition,
there are a number of provincial publications, including Quebec's Le
Devoir, Le Journal de Montréal and La Presse, published in French, and
each major locality publishes local daily or weekly newspapers and
magazines.
The Canadian public broadcasting system is one of the
most complex in the world due to its large territory, combination of
Canadian and American players, private and public ownership of stations
and networks, and two national languages. The largest component of this
system is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which by the
early 1990s included 860 television channels and 673 radio stations
broadcasting in English and French, and together with affiliated
partners, more than 1,100 television channels and more than 750 radio
stations. The second national television broadcasting system after CBC
is the private CTV. All Canadians have access to radio, and almost
everyone has access to two national television channels.
Sports play an important role in the life of Canadians. In 1994, the
National Sports of Canada Act formalized this status for ice hockey
(winter) and lacrosse (summer). Founded in 1943, the international
Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto. All National Hockey League
(NHL) teams originally represented Canada, and by the 2020s, this
country is represented in the league by clubs from seven cities -
Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.
Even at the beginning of the 21st century, about 50% of all NHL players
come from Canada. The Canadian men's team, made up of amateur hockey
players, won the World Championship 15 times between 1920 and 1952. The
Canadian team won 6 more titles before the end of the century and 5 in
the first 20 years of the 21st century. In addition, Canadians have won
9 Olympic hockey tournaments. Significant success in international
competitions was achieved by the women's and youth teams of the country.
Curling, figure skating, skiing, canoeing and Canadian football,
similar to the American version, are massively popular in Canada. For
the Gray Cup - the main trophy in this sport - the clubs of the Canadian
Football League compete. Canadian professional clubs play in the major
American professional leagues in basketball, baseball and European
football (Toronto Blue Jays - MLB champions in the 1992 and 1993
seasons, Toronto FC - 2017 MLS champion, Toronto Raptors - NBA champions
in the season 2018/2019).
The Canadian Olympic Association was
founded in 1904 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee in
1907. Canadian athletes have competed in every Olympic Games since 1904,
with the exception of the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Canada is the world
leader in Olympic medals won in ice hockey, freestyle and curling.
Canadian cities have repeatedly become the venue for the Olympic Games.
So, the 1976 Summer Olympics were hosted by Montreal, the 1988 Winter
Games were held in Calgary, and the 2010 Winter Olympics were held in
Vancouver (at these Games, for the first time in history, Canadians took
first place in the unofficial medal count). A number of Canadian cities
have hosted the Commonwealth Games, starting with the very first, held
in Hamilton, Ontario as the British Empire Games in 1930.
Among
the popular recreational events in Canada is the Calgary Stampede, which
has been held regularly since 1912. It is one of the largest rodeos in
the world with a total prize pool of over $2 million. Since 1967, the
Canadian Grand Prix has been a permanent stage of the world
championships in Formula 1 racing, since 1978 it has been held at the
circuit named after. Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal)
Canada recognizes and celebrates the following national holidays
(some provinces may have minor differences):
New Year's Day —
1 January
Family Day — 3rd Monday in February (not observed in
all provinces, known as Louis Riel Day in Manitoba, Islander Day in
PEI)
Good Friday — Friday before Easter (a few institutions also
close on Easter Monday)
Easter Sunday — late March or early
April, first Sunday after first full moon after the spring equinox
Victoria Day—Last Monday in May before 25 May (known as Fêtes des
Patriotes in Québec; always one week before the US Memorial Day)
St. Jean Baptiste Day (Québec) — 24 June (also known as Fête
Nationale)
Canada Day— 1 July
Civic Holiday — first Monday in
August (only applies in some provinces, under different names; not
in Québec)
Labour Day — first Monday in September
Thanksgiving—Second Monday in October (the same day as the US
holiday of Columbus Day)
Remembrance Day —11 November (bank
holiday only; the same day as the US Veterans Day)
Christmas Day
— 25 December
Boxing Day—26 December
Canada's Labour Day is
not celebrated on 1 May, as in much of the world, but on the first
Monday in September (the same day as the US celebrates its Labor
Day).
The famous symbol of Canada is the maple leaf. It is
first mentioned as a symbol of the French Canadians in 1806 as opposed
to the prickly English rose. During the uprisings of 1837, the maple
leaf was the emblem of the rebels, not only in the French-speaking
Lower, but also in Upper Canada. In 1859, it was first officially
recognized as a symbol of Canada when it was included in the design of
the standard of the 100th Regiment of Foot (Royal Canadians). Since
1868, the maple leaf has become part of the coats of arms of Ontario and
Quebec, and in 1921 - the coat of arms of Canada. In 1996, maple was
also officially recognized as a tree - a symbol of Canada.
When
Canada gained independence in 1867, the country's coat of arms was not
created. Instead, in 1868, each of the four provinces that formed the
dominion received its own coat of arms; at the same time, the Great Seal
of Canada was created, the design of which included all four coats of
arms. Subsequently, the coat of arms of Canada began to be considered a
heraldic shield that united these four coats of arms, to which the coats
of arms of new provinces that joined the confederation were gradually
added. In 1921, a fundamentally new coat of arms was established by
royal declaration, on which, on a white field under the coats of arms of
England, Scotland, Ireland and France, there is an escape with three
maple leaves. These leaves, originally green, turned red in 1957.
Elements of the coat of arms of Great Britain are taken as the basis for
the shield holders and heraldic figures around the shield. The motto A
mari usque ad mare (from Latin - "From sea to sea") goes back to the
text of Psalm 72 (in the Orthodox tradition, Psalm 72:8); in 1994, a
ribbon with the motto of the Order of Canada - Desiderantes meliorem
patriam (from Latin - "Striving for a better homeland") was added to the
design of the coat of arms.
After gaining independence, Canada
continued to use the British "Union Jack" as the national flag, but
since the 1870s, the commercial flag of Great Britain (the so-called
"Red Standard") was unofficially used, on the red field of which the
coat of arms of Canada was added. Up until the early 1960s, the only
changes to this flag were to the Canadian coat of arms. However, after
World War II, public support for the idea of adopting their own flag
increased in Canada. This new flag was approved by royal decree on
February 15, 1965. The modern flag of Canada is a horizontally elongated
rectangular panel (the ratio of the lengths of the horizontal and
vertical sides is 2: 1) of red color. The entire central part of the
flag is occupied by a white square, in the center of which is an
11-pointed stylized red maple leaf.
Since 1980, the official
anthem of Canada has been the song "O Canada", written 100 years earlier
by Calix Lavalle to the French text of Adolphe-Basile Routier. A number
of different English lyrics were created to the music of Lavalle, but
the words written in 1908 by Robert Stanley Weir became official. Long
before its official status, around the time of World War I, "O Canada"
was the de facto anthem of Canada, although in its English-speaking
regions it was often sung without words in the absence of an officially
approved text in this language.
An animal - a symbol of Canada
for a long time is a beaver, whose skins originally formed the basis of
its development and well-being. Already in 1678, figures of four beavers
adorned the emblem of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the governor of New
France, Louis de Frontenac, proposed including this animal in the Quebec
city emblem. The beaver is featured on the first Canadian postage stamp,
issued in 1851. In 1975, this animal was legally declared a symbol of
Canadian independence. In 2002, the Canadian horse was included in the
country's symbols.
The official national colors of Canada since
1921 are red and white, the traditional national colors of England and
France. In 2011, the red-green-brown-gold maple leaf tartan, created in
1964 by David Weiser, was included in the national symbols.