History

Recent History

In the early years of the new millennium, Canada was focused on maintaining social programs, dealing with high taxes, and tackling national security in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the USA. Canada played the friendly neighbour part by graciously accommodating grounded planes and passengers during the aftermath. The oversight of President Bush, who neglected to thank the nation until after his re-election years later, only added to the reasons for him becoming the least popular of recent US presidents in Canadian eyes.

The Canadian national elections in January 2006 brought a major change as the Liberal party, which had been governing for a dozen years, lost its power to the Conservative party. To push through his legislative agenda, though, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is required to work with other parties, most particularly the Bloc Québecois (the federal equivalent of the Parti Québecois). The movement for Québec independence championed by the Bloc, meanwhile, has lost some steam, and support for the party within Québec has dropped to a new low of 42%. Most Québecois, it seems, don't feel that forming a sovereign nation is ultimately to their advantage.

Modern Day History

After WWI Canada grew slowly in stature and prosperity; it managed to formalise its independence from Britain in 1931 with the passage of the Statute of Westminster. With the onset of WWII, though, Canada once again fought alongside Britain against Germany, though this time it also entered into defense agreements with the USA, declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In the years after WWII, Canada experienced a huge wave of European immigration, with a further influx of Asians, Arabs, Indians, Italians, Hispanics and Caribbeans arriving in the 1960s. The postwar era was a period of economic expansion and prosperity. In 1967 Canada celebrated its 100th anniversary with Expo, the World's Fair in Montreal, as one of the highlights. Since 1975, a series of land rights agreements has been signed with Canada's aboriginal peoples, giving them some control over vast swathes of the northern portion of the country.

The social upheavals of the 1960s brought to the surface the festering resentments that French-speaking Québec had with English-speaking Canada. In 1976 the Parti Québecois (PQ), advocating separatism, won the provincial election in Québec, though sentiments on the issue have since waxed and waned. In the 1980 sovereignty referendum, the separatists were defeated by 60% of the vote. A second round of voting in October 1995 brought the country within a few thousand votes of breaking up. The prime minister, Jean Chrétien, has since attempted to appease the Quebeckers by recognising the province as a 'distinct society'.

Pre 20th Century History

Well before Columbus sailed the ocean blue back in 1492, prehistoric tribes from Asia had come to Canada across the Bering Strait. The first European visitors were the Vikings, who arrived about 1000 AD and tried to settle in northern Newfoundland. Eventually, however, they grew tired of hostilities with the indigenous tribes and withdrew, leaving Canada's aboriginal population to develop a multitude of languages, customs, religious beliefs, trading patterns, arts and crafts, laws and governments. European interest in Canada only heated up again in the 15th century, when various monarchs sponsored expeditions in search for the Northwest Passage, gold and various other things. They found none of them but that didn't deter explorer Jacques Cartier, who made the first claim on the area surrounding the St Lawrence River for France in 1534.

Another French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, founded Québec City in the early 1600s. In 1663 Canada, now home to about 3000 French settlers, became a province of France. Just as the French started to thrive on the fur trade, the British entered the scene, founding the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670 to add a bit of 'friendly' competition. For a while, the two European cultures coexisted peacefully. But the hostilities of the Seven Year's War, which pitted France and Britain against one another in Europe, spilled over into North America in 1754. After several years of fighting the British captured Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. The turning point in the war arrived when the British defeated the French at Québec City in 1759. At the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France handed Canada over to Britain.

By the end of the American Revolution (1775-83), a migration of about 50,000 British 'Loyalists' from the USA created a more even balance between the French and British populations. Still, the two factions continued to quarrel for almost another century, until fears of being annexed by the increasingly self-confident USA made them realise that they needed to join forces. In 1867 the British North American Act (BNA Act) gave birth to modern, self-governing Canada - the Dominion of Canada - and essentially became Canada's equivalent of a constitution. By 1885 the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway - one of Canada's great historical sagas - joined the country's east and west coasts. By 1912 all provinces had become part of the central government except Newfoundland, which didn't join in until 1949.