Canada,
federated country in North America, made up of ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a vast nation with a wide variety of geological formations, climates, and ecological systems. It has rain forest, prairie grassland, deciduous forest, tundra, and wetlands. Canada has more lakes and inland waters than any other country. It is renowned for its scenery, which attracts millions of tourists each year. On a per-capita basis, its resource endowments are the second richest in the world after Australia. See Canada: Land and Resources.
Canada is the second largest country in the world but has about the same population as the state of California, which is one-25th its size. This is because the north of Canada, with its harsh Arctic and sub-Arctic climates, is sparsely inhabited. Most Canadians live in the southern part of the country. More than three-quarters of them live in metropolitan areas, the largest of which are Toronto, Ontario; Montréal, Québec; Vancouver, British Columbia; Ottawa, Ontario; Hull, Québec; and Edmonton, Alberta. French and English are the official languages, and at one time most Canadians were of French or English descent. However, diversity increased with a wave of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that brought in people from many other European nations. This trend continues into the 21st century: Canada is one of the few countries in the world that still has significant immigration programs. Since the 1970s most immigrants have come from Asia, increasing still further the diversity of the population. See Canada: People.
Canada’s prosperity and diversity have encouraged a variety of artistic pursuits. Most major cities have symphony orchestras, opera companies, classical and modern dance groups, and live theater. Canadian popular musicians have built highly successful careers both in Canada and in the world at large. Canadian writers have also gained worldwide recognition, as have painters, sculptors, filmmakers, and architects. To nurture Canadian arts, the government has imposed quotas on foreign content in Canadian media.
Canada has impressive reserves of timber, minerals, and fresh water.
Canada has impressive reserves of timber, minerals, and fresh water, and many of its industries are based on these resources. Many of its rivers have been harnessed for hydroelectric power, and it is self-sufficient in fossil fuel. Industrialization began in the 19th century and a significant manufacturing sector emerged, especially after World War II (1939-1945). Canada’s resource and manufacturing industries export about one-third of their output. Transportation equipment is the leading manufacturing industry. While Canada’s prosperity is built on the resource and manufacturing industries, most Canadians work in service occupations, including transportation, trade, finance, personal services, and government. See Canada: Economy.
Canada is a parliamentary democracy, and the federal, provincial, and territorial legislatures are all elected. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is recognized as the queen of Canada. She is the official head of state. The queen is represented in Canada by the governor-general and ten lieutenant governors. Canada’s constitution guarantees equality under the law to all of its citizens. Powers of the federal and provincial governments are spelled out separately under the constitution, but over the past 50 years they have increasingly cooperated in programs that provide a wide range of social services—often called the “welfare state”—to the public. See Canada: Government.
Canada’s indigenous peoples (original inhabitants) are often called First Nations or Indians. The name Canada comes from a word meaning “village” or “community” in one of the indigenous Iroquoian languages. Indigenous peoples had developed complex societies and intricate political relations before the first Europeans, the Vikings, arrived in the 11th century. The Vikings soon left, but more Europeans came in the 16th century and were made welcome because they brought manufactured goods and traded them for furs and other native products. However, the Europeans settled down and gradually displaced the indigenous peoples over the next 250 years. This process of dispossession has left a legacy of legal and moral issues that Canadians are beginning to face. See Canada: History.
European settlers came in a series of waves. First were the French, followed by the English, and these two groups are considered the founding nations. France lost its part of the territory to Britain in a war in 1760, but most of the French-speaking colonists remained. Their effort to preserve their language and culture has been a continuing theme of Canadian history and has led in recent years to a movement to become independent of the rest of Canada
Modern Canada was formed in an event that Canadians call Confederation, in 1867, when three colonies of Britain merged to create a partially independent state of four provinces. Since then, six more provinces and three territories have been added. Canada achieved full independence in 1931 but continues to belong to the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of countries with ties to the United Kingdom.
II LAND AND RESOURCES
Canada’s physical characteristics have very much influenced the course of its development. It is a very large country (only Russia is larger) composed of several distinct regions that are often separated from each other by natural barriers. Canada has an abundance of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, fish, and hydroelectric power. These resources have encouraged Canadians to focus their economic development on the export of raw materials. Conservation of these resources has become a national priority.
The vast majority of Canadians live within 320 km (200 mi) of the American border.
Canada is a country of difficult terrain; much of its area is under water or is rocky, marshy, mountainous, or otherwise uninhabitable. Settlement has therefore been concentrated in the areas that are more level and have the better soils. The northern climate, with its long winters, has encouraged the population to settle in the south, where agricultural and living conditions are most favorable. The vast majority of Canadians live within 320 km (200 mi) of the American border.
A Extent
Canada occupies nearly all of North America north of latitude 49° north and east of longitude 141° west. It has an area of 9,984,670 sq km (3,855,103 sq mi), of which 7.6 percent or 755,180 sq km (291,577 sq mi) is covered by fresh water such as rivers and lakes, including part of the Great Lakes. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the northeast by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, which separate it from Greenland; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the United States; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. Cape Columbia, a promontory of Ellesmere Island, is the country’s northernmost point; the southernmost point, 4,600 km (2,900 mi) away, is Middle Island in Lake Erie. The easternmost and westernmost limits, which are separated by 5,500 km (3,400 mi), are respectively Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the greater part of the border with Alaska.
Long distances and a challenging physical environment make transportation and communication across the country very difficult. This reality has made it a challenge for Canadians to maintain a sense of nationhood.
B Natural Regions
Six general landform regions are distinguishable in Canada: the Appalachian Region, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands, the Canadian Shield, the Great Plains, the Canadian Cordillera, and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
B1 Appalachian Region and Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands
Eastern Canada consists of the Appalachian Region and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands. The Appalachian Region embraces Newfoundland Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec. This region is an extension of the Appalachian mountain system (continuations of the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire) and of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands are a generally level plain that includes southern Québec and Ontario. This region has the largest expanse of good farmland in eastern and central Canada. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands also contain the so-called manufacturing heartland of Canada, along the corridor from Windsor, Ontario, to Québec City. Ontario and Québec provinces together account for 77 percent of Canada’s employment and value added in manufacturing.
B2 Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield is the largest region, extending from Labrador to Great Bear Lake, from the Arctic Ocean to the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River, and into the United States west of Lake Superior and in northern New York. This region of ancient granite rock is sparsely covered with soil and deeply eroded by glacial action. It includes all of Labrador (the easternmost part of the mainland), most of Québec, northern Ontario, Manitoba, Nunavut Territory, and part of the Northwest Territories, with Hudson Bay in the center.
ECONOMY
Canada has an advanced economy, and the majority of its citizens enjoy a high quality of life by world standards. Historically, much of this wealth has been generated through the extraction and processing of natural resources, especially fish, furs, timber, minerals, and farm produce. Increasingly, however, manufacturing and service activities have been added, and Canada now has one of the most complex economies in the world. Canada is also highly integrated into the global economy through trade, with 33.6 percent of its GDP dedicated to exports.
The Canadian economy has grown more rapidly than those of most other developed countries since the recession of the early 1990s. This success is due to several factors, including low inflation, low interest rates, and a low Canadian dollar (with respect to other major currencies), all of which helped exports to grow. However, this growth has not generated as many jobs as analysts expected. Canadian businesses have found ways to increase their output by introducing more-efficient methods of production rather than hiring more workers. Also, the role of government in the Canadian economy has declined, and with it the number of jobs in the public sector. In 1999 Canada’s unemployment rate was 7.6 percent.
During the decade from 1986 to 1995, the Canadian economy grew 20.4 percent and reached a GDP of C$776.3 billion, representing a per-capita income of C$25,900. In 1999 it was C$976.7 billion. The mining, communications, utilities, trade, and financial services sectors grew the most rapidly in output, while employment growth was greatest in nongovernmental services. At the same time, the proportion of GDP accounted for by federal government expenditure decreased from 23.1 to 15.2 percent, the result of the sale of several large government-owned corporations as well as reduced program spending.
Agriculture
Agriculture is not as important to the Canadian economy as it was in the 19th century, but it continues to be the mainstay of several regions and is a significant source of export income. In early 2001 there were 246,900 farms in Canada, averaging 273 hectares (675 acres) in size. Some 430,000 men and women worked on Canadian farms in 1995, representing 3.2 percent of the total labor force. The annual value of farm output amounted to C$26.7 billion in 1995, which was 2.1 percent of GDP. Because of Canada’s abundant production and relatively small population, it is a leading exporter of food products; these account for 12.6 percent of goods exported, compared with 0.5 percent for Japan, 5 percent for Mexico, and 8.1 percent for the United States.
Farm life is changing considerably as farmers adjust to new trends. One trend is consumer preference for foods with lower fat content, which has changed demand for specific products. For example, there is less demand for cream and more demand for vegetables. Also, government has reduced its subsidies to the industry, making it necessary for farmers to introduce more profitable crops and more livestock production, which is generally more profitable. Full-time farming is declining: 1995 figures indicate that, on the average, two-thirds of farm family income came from sources off the farm.
Farms in Canada are about equally divided between crop raising and livestock production. Wheat is the most important single crop, and the Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan form one of the greatest wheat-growing areas of the world, producing more than one-fifth of the world’s supply. One-half of Canada’s wheat is grown in Saskatchewan. In recent years, prairie farmers have sought to diversify their crops to minimize the effects of bad crop years or reductions in the price of wheat. Thus they have increasingly shifted from wheat to other grains and oilseeds. After wheat, the largest cash receipts from field crops are obtained from canola, vegetables, barley, maize, potatoes, fruits, tobacco, and soybeans. Wheat exceeded its nearest competitor in output in 2003 at 23.6 million metric tons versus 13.6 million.
Canada’s agricultural sector is in two major parts. The first, dominated by grains and livestock, is geared to the export market, and farmers receive international prices. The second is sold within a protected Canadian market. These products, mainly dairy products and poultry, are regulated by provincial marketing boards that allocate quotas to individual farmers to preserve the farming sector and to match supply with demand. As a result, Canadian consumers pay a premium for poultry and dairy products. The future of marketing boards is in doubt, however, due to a recent agreement of the member countries of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which included Canada, to open agricultural markets to full global competition. GATT, now succeeded by the World Trade Organization, was an international body that promoted and enforced trade laws and regulations. It worked to minimize preferential trade agreements between countries and other barriers to international trade.
Livestock and livestock products are growing in importance and account for about 50 percent of cash receipts. Beef cattle ranching is a specialized industry in the west, especially in the dry grasslands of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 2003 Canada had 13.4 million cattle, compared to 96 million in the United States. About one-tenth of these were milk cows. Canada also had 14.7 million hogs and 975,600 sheep. Ontario and Québec rank highest in production of dairy products, with about 73 percent of the national output; in poultry farming, with 64 percent; and in egg production, with 55 percent. Québec produces 82 percent of the maple products, and Ontario produces 89 percent of the nation’s tobacco crop. Fruit farming occurs in Ontario, British Columbia, and Québec, with apples contributing about 40 percent of the total value.
Forestry
Forest products contribute significantly to regional and rural economies. The forest industry as a whole employs 370,000 people directly and an additional 510,000 in support services (1994 statistics). It is estimated that the full range of forestry activities—from logging, through manufacturing, to trade in wood products—generates 1 in 15 Canadian jobs. The industry accounted for 2.9 percent of Canada’s GDP in 1995 and 14.1 percent of goods exported.
Canada’s forests are about 10 percent of the world’s total forest area. Despite heavy harvesting by early settlers, forests, mainly coniferous, still cover 46 percent of the country’s land area. A national forest inventory is conducted every five years by Forestry Canada, the federal forestry agency, in cooperation with provincial and territorial agencies. Fifty-six percent of the 1996 inventory was considered commercial quality, and 28 percent of the total was actively managed for timber production, while 12 percent was protected in forest reserves. During the past 15 years, an average of 0.4 percent of the national stock of wood was harvested per year, and another 0.3 percent was lost to fire or pests.
Most of the forestland is owned and managed by the provincial and federal governments. Provincial governments control 71 percent of the total, leaving 23 percent in federal jurisdiction and 6 percent in private hands. Private lands include small woodlots and large industrial freeholds.
Canadian wood products are among the finest in the world: Canadian softwood lumber is made up of long fibers that provide a high strength-to-weight ratio, and Canadian pulp is known for strong, light-colored paper products. Canada is the world’s largest producer of newsprint: In 1995 it produced 27 percent of the world’s total and exported more than 85 percent of its production, supplying half the world’s export market for newsprint. The United States is the world’s second largest producer, at 18 percent, but uses nearly all of its output domestically. The Scandinavian countries are Canada’s most significant competitor in the timber trade, supplying 22 percent of world demand. Canada is also the world’s second largest producer of pulp, the third largest producer of sawn lumber, and the world’s largest exporter of softwood lumber. The forest industry is concentrated in British Columbia, Québec, and Ontario. In 1991 the combined value added of forest products for these provinces was C$35.5 billion, about 85 percent of the national total for forest products. (Value added is the difference between the price of raw materials used in a product and the price it commands as a finished item.) The most important species, in order, are spruce, hemlock, cedar, and Douglas fir. Both the output of and employment in the forest industry declined during the early 1990s but began growing again in 1992.
The annual allowable cut for a forested area is the amount of timber that can be harvested each year without diminishing the long-term sustainability of the forest. Canada’s estimated annual allowable cut in 1996 was 230 million cu m (8.122 billion cu ft) or 0.6 percent of the total stock. There is uncertainty in many parts of the country over whether the current harvest rates are sustainable. Regional supplies vary considerably, and some local shortages have been identified. The provincial government of British Columbia tightened its rules on forestry practices in 1995. The same year, the federal and provincial ministers responsible for forestry published guidelines, entitled Defining Sustainable Forest Management, to standardize practices and ensure a viable industry for the future.
D Fisheries
Commercial fishing in Canada dates back nearly 500 years. Fishing occurs in ocean waters, inland lakes, and rivers, but the industry has declined as the number of fish has decreased. Only about 30,000 Canadians (less than 0.1 percent of the labor force) are employed in this sector, which accounts for 0.2 percent of the GDP. Canada’s fish catch in 2001 was 1.20 million metric tons. About 80 percent of the catch is exported, which is just over 1 percent of the total value of goods exported. Canadian fish and seafood are sold in 100 different countries, but the primary markets are the United States (50 percent) and Japan (29 percent). Cod, herring, crab, lobster, and scallops have been the most important exports from the Atlantic coast, and halibut and salmon from the Pacific coast. There is also a commercial freshwater fishery in Ontario, focused on Lake Erie. Commercial sport fishing industries have been developed throughout Canada.
Fisheries have long been the mainstay of economic life in Atlantic Canada. In 1989 the region’s catch represented 75 percent of Canada’s total and 64 percent of landed value, which is the amount the fishers are paid for it. By 1992 the total value of Canada’s Atlantic fisheries reached C$984 million annually. In 1993, however, Ottawa imposed an unprecedented two-year ban on the commercial fishing of cod in the northern fishery, extending from southern Labrador to the northern Grand Banks, because of a drastic decline in fish stocks. This was formerly one of the richest areas on the Atlantic coast. The fishing ban later was extended indefinitely because of the near-extinction of the fish. Initially the federal government provided emergency assistance payments, in addition to unemployment compensation, to fishers, processing workers, and boat owners. A more comprehensive compensation plan, a voluntary job retraining program, and a regional development program followed.
The causes of the near-extinction of cod have been much debated. Some blame environmental factors. The Canadian government, however, points to the increasing use of larger, more sophisticated boats and foreign intrusion on the fishery. In the century before 1950, fishers worked in small boats using hand-operated equipment and took about 250,000 metric tons a year from the Atlantic waters off Newfoundland and Labrador. After 1950 Canadians increased their catching capacity by using larger, longer-range vessels with new nets, power equipment, and electronic navigation. Modern European vessels also moved in. In 1968 the northern cod catch peaked at 800,000 metric tons. In 1977 Canada extended its fishing zone to 200 nautical miles (230 mi/370 km) to protect stocks, and for a few years scientists believed that the cod stocks were recovering. However, foreign boats, especially Spanish and Portuguese, began fishing just outside the zone limit in 1986, and by 1991 they accounted for more than a quarter of the cod caught in the region. In 1989 scientists realized that the foreign boats were depleting the northern cod stocks. By 1992 Ottawa introduced new conservation measures and stricter enforcement to protect small fish and spawning stocks. However, these measures were insufficient, leading to a total collapse of the fishery and the imposition of the ban. The time it takes to regenerate a commercially viable stock is unknown, but there were enough signs of recovery to partially reopen the fishery in 1997.
The British Columbia fishery on the Pacific coast is also significant to Canada, with a total value of C$416 million in 1992. Five species of salmon are the mainstay of the fishery, accounting for more than 80 percent of the catch. Other fishes caught in Pacific waters are herring, halibut, cod, sole, and a variety of shellfish. In British Columbia and Yukon Territory, about 85,000 indigenous Canadians are eligible to fish as part of their aboriginal rights—rights they retain as the original owners of the land. Some indigenous people also fish in the commercial industry, and what they take there is in addition to what they are allocated under aboriginal rights.
Canada and the United States share the Pacific salmon resource under the 1980 Pacific Salmon Treaty, which took 15 years to negotiate. The treaty’s goals are to conserve stocks and to distribute salmon equitably. Each country is allowed a catch proportional to the share of salmon spawning in its rivers. The Canadian government estimates that 60 percent of the southeastern Alaskan catch are spawned in Canadian waters and are therefore Canada’s property. In the early 1990s the Alaskan salmon fishers increased their catch, and at the same time stocks arriving in Canadian waters began to dwindle. After several years of protesting to the U.S. government that the Alaskans were taking more than their share, Ottawa in 1994 imposed a fee on American fishing boats passing through Canadian waters. The fee was removed later in the year when the United States agreed to international arbitration to settle the dispute.
Mining
Mining in Canada has a long history of exploration and development. The mining industry employs 1.3 percent of the country’s workforce and accounts for 4 percent of the GDP and 19 percent of goods exported. Canada produces both fuel and nonfuel minerals; it is one of the world’s leading producers, and the world’s largest exporter, of nonfuel minerals. In 1995 nonfuel mineral production was C$17.4 billion or more than 40 percent of the total value of Canada’s mineral production. Exports of nonfuel minerals totaled C$23.4 billion. Almost 80 percent of these nonfuel mineral exports were destined for the United States, and about 11 percent went to the European Union or Japan. The remaining 9 percent went to nearly 90 other countries.
Canada is the world’s largest exporter of uranium, zinc, and potash; second largest producer of nickel, elemental sulfur, asbestos, and cadmium; and among the top five producers of platinum, gypsum, copper, lead, cobalt, titanium, and molybdenum. Much exploration and development activity in Canada is now devoted to diamond mining, especially in the Northwest Territories, the Prairie Provinces, and the Canadian Shield.
Fuel minerals—oil and natural gas—are also significant. In 2001, 1,026 million barrels of crude oil and 187 billion cu m (6.6 trillion cu ft) of natural gas were produced, and more than half of both amounts were exported. Canada is the world’s tenth largest exporter of oil, and the largest exporter of natural gas. Canada’s reserves of conventional oil are not particularly large—they are estimated at 9.4 billion barrels—but 300 billion barrels could be extracted from the oil sands around the Athabasca River. Analysts also believe that there are 7.2 trillion cubic meters (255 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas remaining in Canada.
Oil and gas production is centered mainly in Alberta. Pipelines transport Alberta’s crude oil and natural gas to the industrial centers of eastern Canada, to British Columbia, and to the northwestern and midwestern United States. In addition, oil and gas are shipped to refining centers throughout Canada and to the United States. The giant new Hibernia offshore oil project will tap an estimated 615 million barrels of oil. This is about as much as Canadians use in an average year. Located in the North Atlantic about 300 km (about 200 mi) from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Hibernia began production in November 1997.
Environmental and social concerns have caused uncertainty for the mining industry. The degradation of water quality by mine wastes, in particular, has led federal and provincial governments to regulate mine operations. In 1992 the Mining Association of Canada responded by establishing the Whitehorse Mining Initiative, a broad agreement to increase the level of environmental responsibility in the industry. The initiative was developed together with indigenous groups, environmentalists, and representatives of labor unions and government.
Another source of uncertainty in the industry is the denial of access to lands where mining claims are staked, or where bodies of ore are known to be located. For example, in British Columbia the creation of new parks, such as Tatshenshini-Alsek near Alaska, has closed large areas to mining. The land issues raised by the indigenous peoples have held up mining operations for years while ownership of the rights is being negotiated or litigated.
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