Culture can be defined as the behaviours and belief characteristics of a particular social, ethnic,
or age group. Every country has its own special way of life. Canada’s in particular can be considered
unique because Canada is a cultural mosaic, which allows elements of many cultures to be integrated
into one. Canada’s culture has many influences because the numerous people who immigrate here are
encouraged to keep their culture. These immigrants also teach the people they meet when they move
here about their own ways of life. Canada has a culture that is made up of many because of all the
immigration, and openness to culture that the country possesses.
At different times throughout history, people have
…show more content…
When Canada became its own
Canadian culture p2
country, the identity became separate from the UK. Although there were still British colonies, people
were free to start developing their own identity. The Canadian government policy has predominantly been one of peace-keeping. In the 1960s the United States started to become more violent, and Canada
remained peaceful, people looked to Canada as a place to get away from violence (“Canada in the 19th”,
2009). Canada is known worldwide for being peaceful, and is recognized for its peacekeeping efforts in
war zones. “Canada is of a handful of nations to which the United Nations can regularly turn to
obtain peacekeeping advice and expert peacekeepers.” (“Canada & Peacekeeping”, 1999) The
word peace keeping was invented by the fourteenth Canadian Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson during
the Suez crisis of 1956, for which he was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The geography of Canada affects our culture considerably. Canada is located north of the United
States, occupying most of northern America. It is the second largest country in the world. Canadians
take pride in this fact. Firstly, the climate affects what we wear. In the north most parts of Canada, thick
coats and parkas are a necessity, along with mittens, and thick hats, or toques, in Canadian slang in
warmer, southern parts of Canada we must prepare for
When one thinks of Canada, he/she is most likely to stereotypically comment on a subject regarding hockey, beavers, maple syrup, and cold weather. However, not many stop and wonder about how Canada became the peaceful nation it is today. Throughout Canada’s relatively short and brief history, it has managed to flourish into a strong and powerful nation. Canada’s peaceful identity has been formed with meaningful historic events that have occurred throughout our history.It’s identity has been characterized by Lester B. Pearson's role during the suez canal, their involvement in the Vietnam war, and its engagement in peacekeeping missions around the world.
During the Vietnam War (1955-75), was Canada taking a role of an Arms Merchant or a Peacekeeper? Factually, approximately 30 000 Canadians volunteered to fight in the war and also, there are evidences of Canada's involvement in secret, corrupt military missions with the U.S . To this day, it is still debatable whether or not Canada did the “right thing”; and despite the fact that Canada sided with the U.S. and created a bigger, unnecessary “fire” to the Vietnam War, the country managed to show their genuine side which was a peacekeeping, fair-minded nation. Notably, there were significant times when this country confidently committed actions that may be classified as just and responsible. This includes the ‘Draft Dodgers’ incident, how Canada accepted refugees from South Vietnam, and Canadian activisms against war.
Canada is known around the world as a peace keeping country, but has it always been that way? During the world wars, Canada made a number of unethical decisions in war that effected Canadians. Firstly, Canada made unethical decisions during World War One, by declaring war, using conscription and passing the War Measures Act. Canada also made unethical decisions during World War Two, like declaring war for a second time, having Japanese internment camps and participating in the disaster at Dieppe. Canada making unethical decisions in war shows both continuity and significant.
It advocated for the ban on nuclear weapons and arms race, particularly during 1970-1980s. Furthermore, Canada was involved in United Nations since 1945. An important figure in peacekeeping of Canada was Lester B. Pearson, a Canadian prime minister who reigned from 1963 to 1968. Although the concept of peacekeeping was evident before Lester B. Pearson, it was he who promoted for United Nations to establish an official peacekeeping force during the Suez crisis. He stated, “We need action not only to end the fighting, but to make the peace... My own government would be glad to recommend Canadian participation in such a United Nations force, a truly international peace and police force” on November 2, 1956. As a result of Pearson’s proposal for a peace force, the UN Peacekeepers were formed and in 1988, 80 000 UN Peacekeepers accepted a Nobel Peace Prize for their services. The money went to the families of peacekeepers who had died in the line of duty. Lester B. Pearson also received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for the adaptation and evolution of peacekeeping. Moreover, Canadian UN Peacekeepers have accepted missions since the first UN operation in 1956 such as operations in Cyprus, Bosnia and Haiti. In fact, over 125 000 Canadian peacekeepers participated in approximately 50 missions. As well as commencing a peacekeeping force, Canada was one of the first countries to support peacebuilding. For example, in
Canadians pride themselves on being a “peacekeeping country” and many believe that peacekeeping represents a defining aspect of Canadian identity because it reflects fundamental values, beliefs and interests. Canada has been a leader in peace operations since its development that spearheaded by a Canadian. In fact, Canada’s role as peacekeeper remains the main focus of the Canadian military after its invention around 60 years ago, originally started by a Canadian. Their efforts have gained an international reputation for Canada as a significant contributor to international peace and stability. While Canada has an exemplary history in UN peacekeeping, the current extent of its contribution, both in terms of peacekeeping personnel and percentage of funds to peacekeeping missions, are on a clear decline. The belief that Canada is a peacekeeping country is misguided because recent Canadian commitment shows a sharp decline in Canadian participation in UN peacekeeping. Surprisingly, as of March 2007, Canada ranked 59th out of 114 countries in terms of military and police contributions to UN operations. Despite Canadian declined involvement in peacekeeping during the last decade, it still remains a valuable and important mission that greatly deserves Canadian resources including monetary support, resources and personnel.
Also, Canada is pressures on the political field by the United States. As a superpower United States is pressuring Canada to support them. During the Cold War Americans moved the nuclear missiles into Canada, even though the majority of Canadians were against it. Canada sends forces to Afghanistan to finish the
Canada is a nation built on immigration, and as the world becomes an ever increasingly hostile place more and more have chosen to try and make Canada their home. This melting pot of different cultures has created an overall atmosphere of acceptance, and is teaching younger generations a sense of community, empathy, and togetherness. Sharing our space and learning to grow with different ethnicities has perpetuated our status as a friendly, caring, and loyal nation, that many are willing to risk everything for in exchange for becoming a part of it.
Ever since the 1950’s more of the American culture has been known to influence Canadian ways of living through the media.
Along with Canada’s lack of contribution, Canada’s political figures do not consider Canada a peacekeeper. The previous Prime Minister Stephen Harper had his own opinion of Canada and peacekeeping. Stephen Harper says “(Canada) out of the peacekeeping business”. The fact that the Prime Minister explicitly stated that Canada has no relevance to peacekeeping is mind boggling considering how relevant Canada used to be. When Canada’s own prime minister makes a statement about their prominence it proves how much Canada has changed. Although through Justin Trudeau,
Canada has been actively involved with the United Nations since its creation in 1945. Since then, Canadian peacekeepers have participated in almost every single peacekeeping mission. The role of Canadian peacekeeping was to bring peace and stability between countries. However, Canada’s role is slowly starting to diminish because of its failure to prevent conflict in peacekeeping missions. Examples of this instance include the mass genocide in Rwanda, the civil war in Somalia and Yugoslavian crisis.
As the 20th century comes to an end, Canada is a transcontinental nation whose interests and representatives span the face of the globe and extend into every sphere of human behaviour. However this was not always the case. When the four colonies of British North America united to create Canada on July 1, 1867, the new country's future was by no means secure. Canada was a small country, with unsettled borders, vast empty spaces, and a large powerful neighbour, the United States. Confronting these challenges was difficult for the young country. Though Canada was independent in domestic matters, Britain retained control over its foreign policy. Over the next fifty or so years, Canada's leaders and its
Canadian and American cultural views were different which was proved because one is multicultural and the other is not. Canada was known as “mosaic” which means immigrants from any ethnic group were accepted here and were allowed to practice their religion. Therefore, they have a double identity ,meaning they are their ethnic group before a Canadian citizen as in Japanese-Canadian, Asian Canadian and so on . Whereas ,American culture was known as the “melting pot “, where they accept other cultures however they encouraged their citizens to give up their original culture ( Wells ,10 and 11 ). Canadian’s usually describe themselves as “NOT AMERICAN“(Wells,35) . Many Americans view Canada as a positive nation and as a better environment to live in then the United States . A legal sectary from Gastonia ,North Carolina said “Canada’s such a terrific place, I’d move there tomorrow if I could” (Wells, 35). This proves that Americans want to come to Canada since it is a safer environment due to it’s unique culture. Canadians are recognized as more modest, less aggressive and more down to earth then their southern neighbors (Wells,35).
The government of Canada decided that the country could be a mosaic of cultures where people from different countries could keep their nationalities and still be called canadian therefore allowing an influx of different cultures. The royal commission came up with the idea of "cultural pluralism" and encouraged the government to reflect this in their policies. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the prime minster in 1917 accepted this policy called the multiculturalism policy. In 1988, the governement of Canada also imposed the "Multiculturalism Act" . The factors influencing these two policies/acts were quite similiar to one another. In mid-1960s, the troubled English-French realtions in Canada desperately needed a solution. They preferred the idea of a cultural mosaic. After establishing this policy racism reduced significantly as every ethnic group was to be treated the same way, allowing canada to be a cultural hub. In the context of theory so far everything seems to be working smoothly but the real question that we need to ask ourself is whether multiculturalism is working in our society or not ? Do we feel comfortable living amogst all the different kinds of people and are content with our lifestyle? Take education for an example. A university in North America called Stanford had a program in which the curriculum was designed
What is Canada? What is a Canadian? Canada, to employ Voltaire's analogy, is nothing but “a few acres of snow.”. Of course, the philosopher spoke of New France, when he made that analogy. More recently, a former Prime Minister, Joe Clark, said that the country was nothing but a “community of communities”. Both these images have helped us, in one way or another, try to interpret what could define this country. On the other hand, a Canadian could be a beer, a hockey-playing beaver or even a canoe floating in a summer day's sunset. A Canadian could also be a “sovereigntyphobe”, refusing to see the liquefaction, albeit political, of the second largest country in the world.
Canada’s identity comes in many shapes and forms. Multiculturalism has been adopted and is at the forefront of Canadian identity. Following the Second World War, Canada’s multiculturalism policies became more acceptable and even successful in, not only accepting, but inviting multiple ethnic cultures in. In contrast to other countries, multiculturalism adaptation works for the Canadian culture. Canadian policies on multiculturalism have shifted over the past few decades; policies are now implemented for integration, not discrimination.