Canadian Culture Essay

Canada is located in the northern portion of the continent of northern close America, ext close, in general, from the 49th parallel northward to the islands of the Arctic Ocean. Its eastern and western boundaries are the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans respectively. Its land area totals 3,851,809 square miles (9,976,185 square kilometers). The eastern close portion of the field is a riverine and mari season environment, consisting of the provinces of in the altogetherfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. The primaeval portion of the country, in its southern areas, is primarily boreal forest (the provinces of Ontario and Quebec).This forest region ex angles crossways the entire country from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains through to the Atlantic coast, and is get overd by coniferous trees. These variations grant had of import favorable and cultural effects. The vauntinglyst segment of the population resides in the central Carolinia n region, which has the richest and most varied rustic land and, because the commodious Lakes waterway system dominates the central portion of the country, is overly where most of the major manuf corresponduring is located.The savanna or prairie region is more(prenominal) sparsely populated, with several large urban centers in a web across the region, which is dominated by grain farming, cattle and another(prenominal) livestock production, and more recently, oil and immanent gas extraction. The two coastal regions, which have both(prenominal) agricultural production, are best characterized by the ascendence of port cities through which import and merchandise goods move. In the northern section of the center of the country, also sparsely populated, resource extraction of minerals and lumber, has predominated.The effect of this concentration of the population, employment, and productive power in the central region of the country has been the concentration of governmental po wer in this region, as well as the development over clock of intense regional rivalries and disparities in quality of life. Equally all important(p), as employment in the center came to dominate gross subject area production, immigration has tended to flow into the center. This has created a diverse cultural mix in the central region of the country, while the prairie and the eastern maritime region have stabilized paganally 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 spare isolation, West Coast. A final differentiation is amongst urban and agrestic. Local cultural identity is oft marked by expressions of line of merchandiseing values in which rural residents characterize themselves as harder working, more honest, and more deeply committed to comm adept cooperation, in contrast to urban dwellers pic Canada who are characterized by rural residents as gre edy, supplyonest, arrogant, and self-interested.Urban dwellers express their induce identities as more modern and forward looking, more sophisticated, and more liberal in their overall social values, and perceive rural residents as conservative, overdependent on outmoded traditions, unsophisticated, and simple minded. This distinction is most explicit in Quebec, but also plays a key role in governmental, social, and cultural contentions in Ontario. Demography . The functionary population at the last census calculation, in 1996, was 29,672,000, an make up over the preceding(prenominal) census in 1991 of about 6 percentage in five years.The previous five-year increase was almost 7 percent. in that location has been a slow up population increase in Canada over the last several decades, fueled in give out by a decline in the crude birthrate. This slowing of growth has been offset somewhat by an increase in immigration over the last two decades of the twentieth century, coupled with a slowing of emigration. Statistics Canada, the governing body Census management organization, is projecting a population increase of as much as 8 percent surrounded by 2001 and 2005, mostly through increase immigration.Language Canada is bilingual, with face and french as the authorised verbiages. English takes precedence in statutory proceedings outside of Quebec, with English versions of all statutes serving as the final arbiter in disputes over interpretation. As of 1996, the proportion of Canadians reporting English as their engender spiel was just down the stairs 60 percent while those reporting French as their stupefy tongue was slightly less than 24 percent.The percentage of native English speakers had risen over the previous decade, while that of French speakers had declined. At the same time, about 17 percent of all Canadians could speak both official languages, though this is a regionalized phenomenon. In those provinces with the largest number of native F rench speakers (Quebec and New Brunswick), 38 percent and 33 percent respectively were bilingual, numbers that had been increasing steadily over the previous 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 part a result of the immigration patterns over time, which sees the majority of all immigrants gravitating to Ontario, and in part because all official and commercial divine services in Ontario are conducted in English, even though French is available by law, if not by practice. English-French bilingualism is less important in the everyday lives of those living outside of Quebec and New Brunswick. eldest Nations language groups make up a significant, if humiliated, portion of the nonofficial bilingual speakers in Canada, a fact with semipolitical and cultural importance as setoff Nations groups assert greater and more compelling claims on politic al and cultural sovereignty. The trio largest First Nations languages in 1996 were Cree, Inuktitut, and Ojibway, though incomplete 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 following World contend II affected linguistic affiliation.In the period, from 1961 to 1970, for example, only 54 percent of immigrants had a nonofficial language as mother tongue, with more than two-thirds of this group born in Europe. Almost a quarter of them reported Italian, German, or Greek as mother tongue. In contrast, 80 percent of the 1,039,000 immigrants who came to Canada between 1991 and 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, while Arabic, Punjabi, Tagalog, Tamil, and Persian together accounted for about 20 percent.In 1971, the three largest nonoffic ial mother tongue groups were German, Italian, and Ukrainian, reflecting patterns of non-English and non-French immigration that have remained relatively constant through most of the twentieth century. In the period ending in 1996, this had changed, with the rank order shifting to Chinese, Italian, and German. This is reflected in regional concentrations, with Italians arduous 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 gradual decline in out-migration from Europe, coupled with political changes in China and passim Asia, leading to increased out-migration from these areas, is changing the ethnic 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 table. This is likely to change in the early twenty-first century a s an aging cohort of European immigrants declines and out-migration from Europe continues to decrease.These shifts will come to have increasingly important 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 core urban centers in which they settle. Symbolism. This is an area of considerable dispute in Canada, in large part because of the countrys longstanding history of biculturalism (English and French) and perhaps most importantly because of its propinquity to the United States, whose symbolic and rhetorical influence is both unavoidable and openly resisted.Ethnic and cultural regeneration in Canada, in which different cultural groups were expected to maintain their distinctiveness rather 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 s ymbols in Canada tend to be either somewhat superficial or regionalized. There are, however, certain symbols that are deployed at both official and unofficial events and functions which are generally shared across the entire country, and can be seen as general cultural symbols, even if their uses may not always be serious.The core values that testify these symbols are cooperation, industriousness, and patiencethat is, a kind of national politeness. The Canadian symbolic order is dominated by a concern for order and stability, which marks Canadian identity as something communal rather than individualistic. Canada throughout its history might best be described as a nation of nations. Two European colonial powers dominate the history of Canada and its progeny as a nation France and Great Britain. In time Britain emerged as the dominant political and cultural force inCanada, but that emergence 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 juncture cultural identity, with French Canada, in Quebec and in other parts of eastern Canada, remaining a uneven 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 particular kind of nation.Most important, the development of the Canadian nation, however uneven the power of the English and the French, has been characterized by discussion, planning, and compromise. The gradual opening of all of Canada to European control, and its coming together in 1867 as a national entity, was not the result of war or rotary motion but instead, of negotiation and reconciliation. It was an orderly transition managed almost like a business venture, through which Canada obtained a degree of sovereignty and Great Britain co ntinued to hold Canadas allegiance as a genus Phallus 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 Government of Quebec refusing to sign the constitutional enabling agreement would provide both the drama of the moment, and its unfathomed character, one of compromise and collaboration.Leading up to and following the emergence of Canada as an independent political suppose in 1867, English Canada and English identity dominated 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 particular(a) influence and effect at the national level. English symbols, the English language, and the values of loyalty to the English spinning top pr evailed throughout the nation as the core underpinnings of national identity.The dominance of English Canada in terms of national identity, especially 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 strain between the two national identities of Canada, a tension which, in he period from the 1960s onward, has come to be expressed in suppuration 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 regularly threatening the unity of the federation, has also had a mollifying effect on ethnic divisions more generally. The main ex ception to this has been the relationship between the dominant French-English state and aboriginal peoples.Colonial relations with indigenous ethnic groups worldwide have lots been marked by violent conquest. While violence did play a role in these relationships in Canada, more frequently 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 annul aboriginal cultural identities Food in Daily Life . The agricultural and ethnic richness of Canada has led to two distinctive characteristics of everyday aliment consumption. The first is its scale.Canadians are big eaters, with effect portions in particular dominating the Canadian repast. There are generally three regular meals 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 i n urban areas, but remains a substantial 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 extended, in contrast with lunch which is often, for adults, shared with coworkers. Meat plays a key role in all three of the formal meals, but with increasing importance at eat and dinner. Dinner should have some special, and most often, large, meat portion as its key component. Each of these three meals can be, and often are, very substantial. There are general rules concerning appropriate pabulums for each meal, rules that can be quite complex.For example, pork can propose in each meal, but only particular kinds of pork would be considered appropriate. Pork at breakfast may appear as bacon, or sausage, in small portions. Both of thes e products are made with the least valuable portion of the pig. At lunch, pork may appear in a sandwich in the form of processed meats, also made from the least valuable portion of the pig. For dinner, pork appears in large and more highly valued forms, such(prenominal) as roasts or hams, which require often elaborate proviso and which are presented to diners in a way that highlights their value and size.The other main feature of Canadian food is diversity. The complex ethnic landscape of Canada and the tendency of ethnic groups to retain a dual cultural preference have meant that Canadian culinary art 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 plum 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 Can adian fast is d nuden 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 initiation and consumption. Ceremonial dinners are often made up of a long list of dishes served in a rigid sequence, eaten with utensils specified 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 diners plate.The same general consideration applies to meals for more private special occasions, 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 ot her circumstances. These more private special occasion meals often involve entire extended families sharing in both preparing and eating 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 bringing 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 symbolic 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. elemental 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 around the Great Lakes, and in the Saint Lawrence River Valley. This has meant, however, that the natural resources throughout the country can be exploited more fully. call to Canadas basic economy is its role as a resource base, not only for its own manufacturing, but for export as well. Minerals and ore, forestry products, and in particular in the twentieth century, oil and gas, have been the induction of the Canadian economy since 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 1970s 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 impor t trading partner is the United States. The manufacturing and export of large equipment, and in particular farm equipment, is the game 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 Labor.Labor in Canada is unevenly divided between arch(prenominal) professional, skilled manufacturing, and general unskilled such as service workers. With increased manufacturing efficiency, the skilled manufacturing labor force has declined 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. entryway to different jobs is determined in part by education and training and in part by social networks.