Text

Welcome to Canada/Bien Venu Au Canada

Canadian Soldiers in UN Peacekeeping Missions

In size, Canada is the second largest country on earth. In terms of economic power, it is a member of the Big Seven, the world's leading industrial nations, ranking along with the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Japan. Canada plays an active role in international affairs, often taking part in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions and spearheading aid and development programs. Its scenery of mountains, oceans, forests and prairies is spectacular. It has a lively and rich culture, with many world famous actors, pop stars and writers. In annual "quality of life" surveys produced by the United Nation each year, Canada regularly is rated as having the best standard of living in the world because of its health care, education, clean environment, social welfare, and so on.

In contrast to its physical size, economic power and international prestige, Canada's population is very small. The current population is about 30.6 million—about the same as the Chongqing city! This paradox of having a small number of people in a very large, resource-rich area gives rise to some of the misleading perceptions people have about Canada.

Life in a High Arctic Village

Most people do not know very much about Canada. Mention the country and usually one of two images will spring to mind. On the one hand, you might picture a sparsely populated, frozen country where people live in igloos, eat fish, hunt bears and constantly endure snow and cold. On the other, you might think Canada is a country that is "just like America." Even Americans are inclined to think of Canada as the 51st state, a part of America that through some quirk of history is not one (or more) of the United States' states.

It is easy to understand how such misleading impressions of Canada have become engrained. It is true that most of Canada lies very far north. Large tracts of the country are wild, virtually unpopulated Arctic tundra, full of dangerous animals and freezing temperatures. But most Canadians live in the south of the country, along the 49th parallel: about 90 per cent of the population is estimated to live within a few hundred kilometres of the Canadian-American border, in an climate that is much less extreme.

Canadians and Americans are friendly neighbours, and Canadians frequently visit the US to do such mundane things as buy cigarettes and alcoholic drinks and gas for their cars—these things are less expensive in the US, where government taxes are lower. Most Canadians speak American-sounding English (although if you are alert, you can tell the difference between a Canadian accent and an American one), eat hamburgers, wear jeans, play baseball and enjoy American television shows. And nowadays, many "American" TV shows and movies are actually filmed on location in Canadian cities and towns, which can look just like the US, but where labour costs are lower. It is no surprise that people often assume that Canadians are just like Americans.

This introduction opens with one of the things that makes Canada distinctively different—a welcome to Canada in the two official languages of English and French. This is our first clue as to what makes Canada special. If people outside of Canada are a little bit confused about what Canada is, the same is also true for Canadians. Writers, politicians, educators, sociologists and ordinary Canadians spend a lot of time, effort and money worrying about what exactly is "the Canadian identity." What makes a Canadian Canadian? How is Canada different from the United States, with whom it has so much in common in cultural, economic and physical terms? How is it different from Great Britain, which gave the country its political institutions, its territory, its laws, and even its Royal Family? And what does an English-speaking wheat farmer in rural Saskatchewan have in common with a French-speaking corporate lawyer in the sophisticated city of Montreal? Or a second-generation Canadian dentist who traces her roots back to Guangdong and has been brought up speaking Cantonese as well as English and French? As Canada matures, its cultural make-up becomes more varied and the question of what a Canadian actually is becomes more, rather than less, complicated.

Queen Elizabeth II of U.K.

The Canadian Mosaic

This search for a national identity underlies the story of Canada. It is perhaps a natural thing to search for in a country that is so new (Canada first became a political entity in 1867; and did not assume its present shape until 1949). Canada is a former colony that traces its history, its loyalties and many of its settlers and forefathers to "the Old Country", that is, Great Britain. And when it gained its independence from Britain, it naturally fell under the influence of its large, powerful neighbour to the south with which it has so much in common. Now, its policy of actively encouraging immigration and assisting different cultures to maintain their distinctive languages and identities in Canada means that the forging of a "Canadian" identity that applies to everybody and that everyone is happy with continues to be Canada's major challenge.

Previous Page        Next Page