Canada: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture (Culture Smart!) - Softcover

Diane Lemieux; Culture Smart!

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857338324 ISBN 13: 9781857338324

Publisher: Bravo Ltd, 2016

Synopsis

Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and spanning six time zones. From coast to coast lie vast forests, breathtaking mountains, flat, open plains, and thousands of lakes and rivers. It is also the world s second-most sparsely populated country. The Canadian psyche is deeply influenced by the size of the territory and the extremes of its climate. Canada s short history, and its relatively peaceful development, affects the way the Canadians view the world and their place in it. They are one of the world s wealthiest nations, with a quality of life to match, and are proud of their positive international reputation. Outsiders assume that Canadians are culturally similar to, if more modest than, their American neighbors. But Canadian society is more complex than that. This is one of the most multicultural societies in the world, due to its high level of immigration. In addition, its small population, spread thinly across a huge landmass, affects how Canadians communicate with each other. For instance, they identify more readily with their province or local community than they do with their nation. Politically and economically, the country is very decentralized. "Culture Smart! Canada" gives a broad overview of the geography, history, and politics of the land. It describes Canadian values and attitudes, how people relax in their spare time, and how you can make friends with them. There is a chapter on business for those who need to know what to expect in the corporate world. By preparing you for the reactions, emotions, and events that you will experience during your visit, it will deepen your understanding of the country. Canadians are open, friendly, and relaxed hosts. They will welcome you even more warmly if you demonstrate some depth of knowledge of their culture."

About this title

About the Author

DIANE LEMIEUX is a Canadian writer and journalist based in the Netherlands. Born in Quebec into a diplomatic family, she traveled widely in her childhood. She has a BA in Communication from the University of Ottawa, an MA in Development Studies from Leeds University, and a post-graduate diploma in International Relations from Amsterdam University. She has lived and worked in seven countries around the world. Diane specializes in intercultural communication, national diversity, and expatriate issues, and has written extensively on these subjects for professional journals, newspapers, and the Dutch Government.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Canada

By Diane Lemieux

Bravo Ltd

Copyright © 2016 Kuperard
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-85733-832-4

Contents

Cover, 
Title Page, 
Copyright, 
About the Author, 
Map of Canada, 
Introduction, 
Key Facts, 
Chapter 1: LAND AND PEOPLE, 
Chapter 2: VALUES AND ATTITUDES, 
Chapter 3: CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS, 
Chapter 4: MAKING FRIENDS, 
Chapter 5: THE CANADIANS AT HOME, 
Chapter 6: TIME OUT, 
Chapter 7: TRAVEL, HEALTH, AND SAFETY, 
Chapter 8: BUSINESS BRIEFING, 
Chapter 9: COMMUNICATING, 
Appendix: Some Canadian Inventions, 
Further Reading, 
Acknowledgments, 

CHAPTER 1

LAND & PEOPLE

Canada is the second oldest federal democracy in the world. It is also one of the most multicultural societies on earth due to a high level of immigration that continues to affect the makeup of its people. Its history and geography have profoundly influenced the way Canadians live and think.

GEOGRAPHICAL SNAPSHOT

The Canadian psyche is deeply influenced by the vast size of its territory and the extremes of its climate. Canada is the second-largest country in the world, in total area, after Russia. It is also the second-most sparsely populated country in the world, after Australia. It stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, spanning six time zones. To the north is the Arctic Ocean and to the south are 5,592 miles (9,000 km) of uninterrupted border with the United States. From coast to coast there are vast forests, breathtaking mountains, flat, open plains, and thousands of lakes and rivers. In terms of fresh water, Canada is the richest country in the world.

Six Geographic Regions

The eastern coast of Canada is known as the Appalachian region, and includes the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, as well as a part of Quebec south of the St. Lawrence River known as the Gaspé Peninsula. The region is mainly forested, hilly, and sparsely populated.

Moving from east to west, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands region corresponds to the southern half of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. This area is home to more than half of Canada's population, and is an important agricultural and manufacturing center. This is where most of the country's largest cities are found. It is also home to the Niagara Falls and the Great Lakes, which form the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world and contain 20 percent of the planet's fresh surface water.

Still further west are the interior (or Great) Plains. This region runs through the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Once vast plains, the region is now Canada's wheat basket and largest source of petroleum and natural gas.

The fourth region is the Western Cordillera, which straddles Alberta and British Columbia, making its way up through the Yukon Territory. Here, the Rocky Mountains provide a top-quality, four-season tourist attraction for nature and sports enthusiasts.

To the north there are two geographic regions: the Canadian Shield and the Arctic Archipelago. The Canadian Shield, stretching across northern Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba is a wild, remote area covered with forests and dotted with lakes and rivers. The land in the arctic region, where no trees grow because of the cold and dry temperatures, is known as tundra, where the top layer of soil is permafrost — it is frozen all year-round.

CLIMATE

It is a myth that it is always cold in Canada. In fact, the seasonal (and daily) variation in weather conditions is probably one reason why the weather is the favorite topic of conversation across the country. It is unpredictable, quirky, sometimes extreme, and never "just right."

Roughly speaking, the warmest temperatures across the country are found in the south along the border with the USA. This is also, incidentally, the area where most Canadians live. From east to west, the eastern provinces get the most snow in the winter and have the coolest summers; the prairies get the coldest winters; British Columbia has the mildest summers and the mildest winters, but the highest humidity and rainfall.

One of the pleasures of the Canadian climate is the seasonal variety; visually, emotionally, and in terms of one's wardrobe, it creates a feeling of constant renewal and change.

Summers everywhere are generally warm and pleasant. The warmest regions are in the southern areas of British Columbia (for instance in Vancouver), and in southern Ontario. Every year usually brings a few weeks of hot weather of around 86°F (30°C). This can be unpleasant in Toronto, where the humidity makes the city muggy and sticky. Evenings everywhere are generally cool, making warm sweaters essential if you plan to be out of doors.

Fall is a particularly beautiful time in Canada, when the leaves of the maple trees change color, turning the countryside, particularly in the eastern St. Lawrence area, into a painter's paradise. There is a crisp freshness in the air, and a sense of busy preparation for the long months of hibernation to come.

Canadian winters are long, and the further north you go the longer, colder, and darker they get. Even along the southernmost band of the country, winter temperatures are usually below 32°F (0°C). In Yellowknife the average winter temperature is -18.4°F (-28°C), and in Toronto it is 19.4°F (-7°C). Every winter has its cold streak for a week or more, with temperatures of 0°F (-18°C) or colder. Snowfall, particularly east of Toronto, can be very heavy — an irritant for car drivers but a bonanza for outdoor sports enthusiasts.

And after a long winter, spring is wet and muddy, but the explosion of nature's renewal puts everyone in a good mood.

THE PEOPLE

There are more than 35.5 million Canadians living in almost 3.85 million square miles (almost 10 million sq. km) of territory. Of course, people are not all spread out evenly over the whole country: 80 percent of the population live in urban centers, and 75 percent live within a hundred miles (160 km) of the border with the United States. But people who live in St. John's, Newfoundland, are 3,135 miles (5,045 km) from those living in Vancouver — considerably further away than people who live in London are from those in Tehran — 2,738 miles (4,406 km).

And there is also the country's diversity in terms of "cultures of origin." The French and British arrived in the east first, but, starting from 1885, the railroad permitted successive waves of immigrants to buy cheap land and create towns from ethnically diverse communities. Each year the number of immigrants to Canada amounts to around one percent of the total population. Today, the Canadian population is made up of more than two hundred ethnic groups and approximately 20 percent of the population are foreign-born.

Language and Identity

There are two official languages in most of Canada: English and French. In the three northern territories indigenous languages are also officially recognized.

According to the 2011 Census, three quarters of all Canadians use English as their main language and just over 23 percent use French, leaving around 1.8 percent who speak neither French nor English. Native English speakers are known as Anglophones (59 percent); native French speakers are Francophones (23 percent). The remaining fifth of Canadians are Allophones whose mother tongue is neither French nor English.

Despite the existence of two official languages, only around 17.5 percent of Canadians are bilingual (native French speakers are more likely to speak English than the other way around). The first Canadian Official Languages Act was passed in 1969 and requires government institutions to provide federal services in both languages across the country. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province where provincial public services are also provided in both languages. It is true that all product labels are bilingual across the country (this falls under federal legislation). Many Canadians claim that their most effective source of bilingual education was reading the cereal boxes at breakfast time.

However, bilingualism with a language other than French or English is increasingly common: In the last census, more than 200 languages were reported as home languages. There are eleven Aboriginal language groups that include more than sixty-five distinct languages and dialects. But the country's biggest source of linguistic diversity is through immigration. Chinese languages are the third-most common mother tongue, spoken by almost 3 percent of the total population. Other common language groups are Indo-Iranian, Slavic, and Romance languages. Cree, Inuktitut, and Ojibwemowin are the most commonly spoken Aboriginal languages.

A BRIEF HISTORY

By international standards, Canada is a young nation, and still evolving in terms of its cultural makeup. Its development has largely defined how the nation sees itself in relation to the rest of the world, particularly its large southern neighbor, the United States of America.

The First Peoples

The first inhabitants of Canada arrived around fifteen thousand years ago over the Bering Strait from Asia. As they spread out over the vast territory, they gradually developed several language groups, sophisticated customs, values, beliefs, laws, and systems of government. These First Nations peoples (see this page) had historical and political relationships through which they traded or fought. Their world was rich and complex. And then came the Europeans.

The Viking explorer Leif Eriksson probably reached the east coast of Canada around 1,000 CE and established a settlement, which was later abandoned. However, the real impact of white Europeans began with the "discovery" of Canada in 1497 by John Cabot, an Italian explorer in the service of Henry VII of England. During this period, the Spanish, French, British, and Italians fought to expand their dominion over the "new world." In 1534 Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman sailing under a commission from François I, reached the gulf of the St. Lawrence River and claimed the surrounding area for France.

Initial contact with Europeans in eastern Canada brought diseases that wiped out entire villages. However, through the growth of the fur trade, mainly peaceful relationships were established between the white man and the Native Peoples of Canada.

The English–French competition for dominance in the fur trade was superimposed over an age-old Iroquois–Algonquin antagonism that eventually led to the English-supported Iroquois wars against the French and their Huron–Algonquin allies.

Despite this brief period of violence, the history of European settlement in Canada is less violent than in the rest of the Americas. However, colonial territorial expansion eventually ended the traditional way of life of all the Native People in the country. As of 2013, there are twenty comprehensive self-government agreements with various groups of Native Peoples that provide comprehensive land rights and various models of self-governance.

The Colonies

The first permanent European settlement in Canada was established by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1608 at Stadacona, the Iroquois village that was to become Quebec City. French expansion of their colony was fueled in the first instance by a desire to gain and maintain a monopoly in the fur trade. It was also driven by the missionary zeal of the Roman Catholic Church to accumulate souls.

The first agricultural settlement in the new territories was in what is now Nova Scotia. These French settlers became known as Acadians. They were isolated from the Quebecois settlers for long enough to form a separate Francophone identity, which is still strong today.

It was only in the second half of the 1600s that the government in France realized the need to provide the colony with a rational and effective local government similar to the administrative structures in place in the English colonies to the south.

During this period, the British established the Hudson's Bay Company. Two Frenchmen, Radisson and des Groseilliers, saw the possibilities of a lucrative fur trade in the northern interior. Their request for resources to establish a trading network was rejected by potential French financiers, and they turned instead to their English competitors. In May 1670 a Royal Charter granted the lands of the Hudson Bay watershed to the "Governor and Company Adventurers of England trading into Hudson Bay." The company began with forts and trading posts around the James and Hudson Bay, gradually expanding westward to control huge tracts of land across northern and central Canada.

In 1745, a British force moved up from New England and captured the fort of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, giving the British control over a large French-speaking Acadian population. Ten years after their victory, they deported more than twelve thousand Acadians in what is known as the Great Expulsion. In a period of eight years they were shipped out to the four corners of the planet, separating families and destroying lives. Around four thousand eventually made it to Louisiana, where they became known as Cajuns; a large group returned to the Atlantic Provinces, where their Acadian roots continue to flourish.

The year 1759 was a decisive one in the balance of power between the French and English in Canada. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which took place in Quebec City, pitted the armies of General Montcalm of France and the British commander General Wolfe. General Montcalm's defeat spelled the loss of France's control over Quebec and the St. Lawrence. Within four years, control over the entire region, which would become eastern Canada, was ceded to Great Britain.

In the increasing tensions building up to the war of independence in the United States, the British sought to create stability in their Canadian colonies and build French-Canadian loyalty to the Crown. In Quebec, the demands of the French-speaking population were addressed in the Quebec Act of 1774. This gave French Canadians the rights to practice their Roman Catholic religion and to retain their language and the use of the French Civil Code. It also confirmed the semi-feudal system of land ownership called seigneuries. However, there was no elected legislative assembly; the province was managed by a governor and a legislative council appointed by the British Crown. Despite the limited degree of political independence it represented, the Act was a vital turning point in the development of the Canadian nation, in that it recognized the cultural differences between its French and English subjects — a concept that was a radical departure for the period.

Under the Seigneurial land ownership system, the land had belonged to the king of France and been maintained by the landlord (seigneur). The system remained relatively intact for another hundred years and was formally abolished in 1854, though some aspects of it remained into the twentieth century, when the last feudal land bonds were repurchased through provincial bonds.

Large numbers of Loyalists fled to Canada after American independence. They settled particularly in the areas south of the St. Lawrence River, known as the Eastern Townships. These individuals had lost everything fighting for the British Crown during the war, and loudly claimed their right to land ownership. Under the Quebec Act, however, they were not entitled to own land in the province because of the Seigneurial system. Britain did not want to lose control over Canada as it had the United States, and the interests of the Loyalists across the country were taken seriously.

In 1791 the Constitutional Act split Quebec into Upper Canada (Ontario) and Quebec (Lower Canada). Each was governed by a legislative council appointed for life and a legislative assembly that was elected by the people. In practice, however, power lay with the Governor appointed by the British government and his executive advisors. In 1837, John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, presented the Report on the Affairs of British North America. The report suggested that the provinces be merged under one legislature and given the right of self-governance, which would make them more, rather than less, loyal to the British Crown. This process was accomplished in the 1840 Act of the Union.

During this period, skirmishes continued in the west between the Americans and the British. The War of 1812 was the last war between Canada and the USA, culminating in the drawing of the current border in 1814.

The Birth of a Nation: Not Revolution, But Devolution

In 1867 the Constitution Act (formerly known as the British North American Act) established the Dominion of Canada, which at that time consisted of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. While none of the agreements of the 1774 Quebec Act were revoked, it transformed the government of all the Canadian provinces to the legislative assembly system, basically as it exists today (see the section on the government structure below). One year later the Rupert's Land Act transferred ownership of the immense territory owned by the Hudson's Bay Company to the union. This vast area was later divided into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Canada by Diane Lemieux. Copyright © 2016 Kuperard. Excerpted by permission of Bravo Ltd.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Bravo Ltd
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857338324
• ISBN 13: 9781857338324
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 168