Canadian Culture Essay

Canada is located in the northern hatful of the continent of North America, ex hunt d makeing, in world(a), from the forty-ninth par distributively(prenominal)el north struggled to the is reduces of the Arctic Ocean. Its easterly and western boundaries be the Atlantic and peace-loving Oceans respectively. Its land range totals 3,851,809 neat miles (9,976,185 squ ar kilometers). The eastern well-nigh lot of the pastoral is a riverine and maritime environment, consisting of the provinces of Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. The central portion of the country, in its southern beas, is primarily circumboreal forest (the provinces of Ontario and Quebec).This forest piece extends crosswise the entire country from the eastern slopes of the everyplacestrung Mountains done to the Atlantic coast, and is prevaild by coniferous trees. These variations establish had authorised well-disposed and cordial net results. The bulky st segment of the population resides in the central Carolinian region, which has the richest and to the highest degree varied country land and, beca use the ample Lakes waterway st localisegy dominates the central portion of the country, is in deal manner where closely of the major manufacturing is located.The savanna or prairie region is to a great extent sparsely populated, with some(prenominal) colossal urban focuss in a profit across the region, which is dominated by cereal farming, cattle and some new(prenominal)wise livestock production, and more(prenominal) than recently, crude and natural gas stemma. The dickens coastal regions, which have some rustic production, are best characterized by the control of port cities through which import and trade goods move. In the northern section of the center of the country, too sparsely populated, resource extraction of minerals and lumber, has predominated.The effect of this concentration of the population, em ployment, and productive cause in the central region of the country has been the concentration of policy-making agent in this region, as well as the discipline over time of intense regional rivalries and disparities in quality of bearing. Equ each(prenominal)y serious, as employment in the center came to dominate gross matter production, in-migration has tended to commingle into the center. This has created a several(a) cultural unite in the central region of the country, patch the prairie and the eastern maritime region have stabilized heathenishally and culturally.The consequence of these diverse geographies has been the development of a rhetoric of regional cultures Prairie, Maritime, Central, and because of its supererogatory isolation, West marge. A concluding differentiation is betwixt urban and rural. topical anaesthetic cultural indistinguishability is practically label by expressions of contrasting values in which rural residents characterize themselves as harder working, much honest, and more deeply committed to connection cooperation, in contrast to urban dwellers pic Canada who are characterized by rural residents as greedy, dishonest, arrogant, and self-interested.urban dwellers express their own identities as more modern and forward looking, more sophisticated, and more liberal in their boilers suit kindly values, and perceive rural residents as conservative, overdependent on outmoded traditions, unsophisticated, and simple minded. This distinction is virtually explicit in Quebec, alone also frolics a see role in governmental, social, and cultural contentions in Ontario. Demography . The formalized population at the last nose count calculation, in 1996, was 29,672,000, an subjoin over the former census in 1991 of about 6 portion in five years.The forward five-year increase was al about 7 share. thither has been a slowing population increase in Canada over the last several decades, fue conduct in fictional char acter by a decline in the approximative birthrate. This slowing of growth has been offset close to by an increase in immigration over the last ii decades of the twentieth century, match with a slowing of emigration. Statistics Canada, the regime Census management organization, is projecting a population increase of as much as 8 percent surrounded by 2001 and 2005, just aboutly through increase immigration. terminology Canada is bilingual, with side of meat and french as the prescribed terminologys. side takes precedence in statutory proceedings exterior of Quebec, with English versions of all statutes serving as the closing judge in disputes over interpretation. As of 1996, the harmonise of Canadians reporting English as their breed saliva was just under 60 percent temporary hookup those reporting French as their mystify patois was middling less than 24 percent.The percentage of endemic English speakers had risen over the foregoing decade, eon that of French speakers had declined. At the said(prenominal) time, about 17 percent of all Canadians could speak both official languages, though this is a regionalized phenomenon. In those provinces with the giganticst follow of indigenous French speakers (Quebec and New Brunswick), 38 percent and 33 percent respectively were bilingual, numbers pool that had been increasing steadily over the prior twenty years.In contrast, Ontario, which accounts for more than 30 percent of the total population of Canada, had an English-French bilingualism rate of about 12 percent. This is in classify a result of the immigration patterns over time, which sees the majority of all immigrants gravitating to Ontario, and in objet dartition because all official and commercial work in Ontario are conducted in English, change surface though French is available by law, if not by practice. English-French bilingualism is less measurable in the everyday lives of those living outside of Quebec and New Brunswick. set-back Nations language groups bring about up a significant, if nice, portion of the nonofficial bilingual speakers in Canada, a fact with political and cultural importance as front Nations groups assert greater and more induce claims on political and cultural sovereignty. The ternion largest First Nations languages in 1996 were Cree, Inuktitut, and Ojibway, though fractional(prenominal) census data on First Nations peoples continues to plague assessments of the extent and importance of these mother tongues. Immigration and cultures Changing immigration patterns pursuance World War II bear on linguistic affiliation.In the conclusion, from 1961 to 1970, for example, solely 54 percent of immigrants had a nonofficial language as mother tongue, with more than two-thirds of this group natural in Europe. Al nigh a canton of them reported Italian, German, or Greek as mother tongue. In contrast, 80 percent of the 1,039,000 immigrants who came to Canada in the midst of 1991 a nd 1996 reported a nonofficial language as mother tongue, with over half from Asia and the Middle East. Chinese was the mother tongue of just under 25 percent, temporary hookup Arabic, Punjabi, Tagalog, Tamil, and Persian together accounted for about 20 percent.In 1971, the three largest nonofficial mother tongue groups were German, Italian, and Ukrainian, reflecting patterns of non-English and non-French immigration that have remained relatively aeonian through most of the twentieth century. In the period ending in 1996, this had changed, with the send order shifting to Chinese, Italian, and German. This is reflected in regional concentrations, with Italians concentrated heavily in Ontario, Germans in both Ontario and the Prairie regions, and Chinese and other Asians most heavily represented in southern Ontario and in British Columbia.A slow decline in out-migration from Europe, coupled with political changes in China and passim Asia, leading to increased out-migration from the se plains, is changing the pagan and linguistic makeup of Canada. It should be stressed, however, that these changes are concentrated in two or three key urban centers, while linguistic affiliation elsewhere in the country remains s confuse. This is liable(predicate) to change in the early ordinal century as an aging cohort of European immigrants declines and out-migration from Europe continues to decrease.These shifts willing number to have increasingly eventful cultural effects as immigrants from Asia and, most recently, from certain areas end-to-end the continent of Africa, come to influence the political and social life of the upshot urban centers in which they settle. Symbolism. This is an area of considerable dispute in Canada, in large die because of the countrys longstanding history of biculturalism (English and French) and perhaps most importantly because of its proximity to the unite States, whose exemplaryal and rhetorical influence is both inevitable and o penly resisted.Ethnic and cultural assortment in Canada, in which different cultural groups were expected to maintain their characteristicness sort of than subsume it to some larger national culture, which is the historical effect of the English-French biculturalism built into the Canadian confederation, means that national symbols in Canada tend to be either somewhat trivial or regionalized. There are, however, certain symbols that are deployed at both official and unofficial events and functions which are everydayly divided across the entire country, and can be seen as general cultural symbols, even if their uses whitethorn not always be serious.The centre of attention values that inform these symbols are cooperation, industriousness, and solitairethat is, a kind of national politeness. The Canadian symbolic order is dominated by a concern for order and stability, which mark Canadian identity as something communal rather than indivi tripleistic. Canada throughout its histo ry might best be described as a nation of nations. Two European colonial powers dominate the history of Canada and its subject as a nation France and huge Britain. In time Britain emerged as the superior political and cultural force inCanada, moreover that return exemplifies the sense of agree and cooperation on which Canadian social identity is founded. While Britain, and later English Canada, came to be and remain the most powerful part of the Canadian cultural landscape, this dominance and power exists in a system of joint cultural identity, with French Canada, in Quebec and in other parts of eastern Canada, be a singular and distinctive cultural entity in its own right. This complex antagonism, which has been a thread throughout Canadas emergence as a nation, has also led to a event kind of nation. almost important, the development of the Canadian nation, however funny the power of the English and the French, has been characterized by discussion, planning, and comprom ise. The sluggish opening of all of Canada to European control, and its advance together in 1867 as a national entity, was not the result of war or revolution besides instead, of dialogue and reconciliation. It was an orderly transition managed almost like a business venture, through which Canada obtained a degree of sovereignty and Great Britain act to hold Canadas allegiance as a member of the British Empire.When, in the early 1980s Canada would take the final step towards political independence by adopting its own constitution, it would do so through negotiation as well, and again, the antagonism between English and French Canada, which resulted in the authorities of Quebec refusing to sign the constitutional enabling pledge would provide both the drama of the moment, and its positive character, one of compromise and col lying-ination.Leading up to and following the emergence of Canada as an item-by-item political bring up in 1867, English Canada and English identity do minated the political and cultural landscape. The remaining French presence, in Quebec and throughout the eastern part of the country, while a strong cultural entity in itself, exercised only limited influence and effect at the national level. English symbols, the English language, and the values of loyalty to the English big top prevailed throughout the nation as the core underpinnings of national identity.The dominance of English Canada in terms of national identity, e modifiedly in a federal system in which binationalism and biculturalism were enshrined in the founding legislation of the country, exercised a powerful effect on ethnic relations, but that effect was not ethnic homogenization. Instead, the dominance of English Canada served as a major locus of ongoing focus between the two national identities of Canada, a stress which, in he period from the 1960s onward, has come to be express in growing French-Canadian nationalism and so far unsuccessful attempts on the part of French Canada to secede from the Canadian confederation. This tensionwhich is built into the principles of the confederation itself, which recognizes the duality of Canadian national identity while on a regular basis threatening the unity of the federation, has also had a mollifying effect on ethnic divisions more generally. The main exception to this has been the relationship between the dominant French-English state and indigenous peoples. colonial relations with indigenous ethnic groups ecumenic have a lot been marked by violent conquest. While violence did play a role in these relationships in Canada, more ofttimes than not aboriginal peoples simply had their ethnic and cultural identities erased. The use of forced schooling, including the removal of children from their families, for example, sought to stamp out aboriginal cultural identities Food in Daily Life . The agricultural and ethnic richness of Canada has led to two distinctive characteristics of everyday sustenanc e consumption. The first is its scale.Canadians are big eaters, with meat portions in grouchy dominating the Canadian repast. There are generally three regular repasts in a given day. Breakfast, often large and important in rural areas, but less so in urban areas, is most often not eaten in a group. Lunch, at midday, is most often a snack in urban areas, but remains a inviolable meal in rural centers. Dinner, the final formal meal of the day, is also the meal most likely to be eaten by a residential group as a whole, and it is the largest and the most socially important meal of the day.It is the meal most often used as a social event or to which invitations to nonfamily members are protracted, in contrast with lunch which is often, for adults, dual-lane with coworkers. nerve plays a key role in all three of the formal meals, but with increasing importance at breakfast and dinner. Dinner should have some special, and most often, large, meat portion as its key fixings. Each of these three meals can be, and often are, very substantial. There are general rules concerning appropriate diets for each meal, rules that can be quite complex.For example, porc can witness in each meal, but only particular kinds of pork would be considered appropriate. porc at breakfast may reckon as bacon, or sausage, in piddling portions. Both of these products are make with the to the lowest degree worthy portion of the pig. At lunch, pork may appear in a sandwich in the form of touch on meats, also made from the least valuable portion of the pig. For dinner, pork appears in large and more highly valued forms, such as roasts or hams, which require often work up dressing and which are presented to diners in a way that highlights their value and size.The other main feature of Canadian feed is diversity. The complex ethnic landscape of Canada and the purpose of ethnic groups to retain a dual cultural orientation have meant that Canadian cuisine is quite diverse in its content, with many ethnic dishes seen as in some manner quintessentially Canadian as well. Whether pizza or chow mein, cabbage rolls or fair pudding, Canadian cuisine is best characterized as eclectic rather than consistent in content. There are a small number of food items that are considered distinctively Canadian, such as maple syrup, but overall the Canadian diet is d desolaten from a panoply of ethnic sources.Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. Ceremonial food does not generally differ greatly in content from everyday foods. What distinguishes food in ceremonial settings, such as state dinners, is not the type of food but the amount of food served and the complexity of its instauration and consumption. Ceremonial dinners are often made up of a long angle of dishes served in a rigid sequence, eaten with utensils specify for each portion, and presented in often elaborate arrangement either generally, on the table as a whole, or in the particular portions placed on each di ners plate.The alike(p) general consideration applies to meals for more private special uses, such as those marking important religious holidays such as Christmas. The number of discrete dishes is usually quite large, the preparation of each is often specialized and involved, and portions consumed are more often than not greater than what one would consume under other circumstances. These more private special occasion meals often involve entire extended families communion in both preparing and take in the meal. There is another special meal worth mentioning, the potluck. Potluck is derived from the word potlatch, a special occasion of many West Coast First Nations peoples. The potluck involves each guest preparing and convey a dish to the event, to be shared by all the diners. The key component of this particular kind of meal is food sharing among friends as opposed to food making for family. In general, potluck meals are meals shared by friends or coworkers. They express the s ymbolic importance of the meal as a part of the moral geography of social relations among nonkin, but distinguish this meal as an act of food sharing rather than an act of food preparation.That is, the potluck meal expresses a sense of community and kindness, while the family meal expresses a sense of service, duty, and family solidarity. staple Economy. Canada is a resource rich, but land and people poor, country. While physically vast, there are geographic limitations on where people can live such that most of the population is located well-nigh the Great Lakes, and in the Saint Lawrence River Valley. This has meant, however, that the natural resources throughout the country can be victimized more fully.Key to Canadas basal frugal system is its role as a resource base, not only for its own manufacturing, but for trade as well. Minerals and ore, forestry products, and in particular in the twentieth century, oil and gas, have been the foundation of the Canadian frugality sinc e European conquest of the area. Farming is also key to the Canadian economy, although most of Canadas agricultural production The single largest area of economic growth in Canada since the seventies has been in the service sector, the part of the economy which provides services rather than goods for sale. r Trade. Canada exports around the world, but its most important export and import trading partner is the United States. The manufacturing and export of large equipment, and in particular farm equipment, is the second largest component of Canadian manufacturing and trade. At the same time, Canada remains a major resource exporter. In particular, Canada exports raw materials such as petro-chemicals and oil, minerals and ores, and forestry products. Division of crowd.Labor in Canada is unevenly divided between skilled professional, skilled manufacturing, and general menial such as service workers. With increased manufacturing efficiency, the skilled manufacturing labor force has d eclined in size, though not in economic impact, while the general unskilled labor force has increased at the same time skilled professionalswhether doctors, computer programmers, and other new economy professionalshas also increased. entry to different jobs is determined in part by education and training and in part by social networks.