Canadian History

Theres an unfortunate belief that Canadian history is too well boring to care much about.
Yet those who actually take the time to study the topic usually leave impressed. Canada is really
more of a project than a country in a lot of ways, and it can be quite fascinating to learn the
story of how the nation was built, why it survived, and the different leaders and visions that made
it all possible.
Canadian history is usually split into two categories, pre-Confederation and postConfederation, with Confederation being the date (July 1st, 1867) that Canadas modern
constitution of self-government was adopted. For the purposes of this guide, Ive divided
Canadas history into the following sections:
Early Canadian History

Jacques Cartier, like many early European explorers, believed that one of the main objectives of
his travels to the "New World" was to spread Christianity to unenlightened peoples. Large
delegations of missionaries were thus some of Canada's first and most influential residents.
How far back do you want to go?
The land that is now Canada was, of course, occupied long before white people showed up.
For thousands of years, a diverse assortment of aboriginal peoples of the Amerindian race
thrived on the North American continent, inhabiting organized civilizations that, although
technologically primitive in many ways, nevertheless maintained sustainable economies,
sophisticated political systems, complex spiritual beliefs and rich, vibrant cultures. These natives
lived in small, nomadic groupings across all regions, even in extremely inhospitable territory like
the far north and barren central grasslands of the continent.
Once European settlers showed up, however, these natives were systematically uprooted and
pushed out of their traditional lands, either through war or forced resettlement into useless
areas where they wouldnt be in the way. Though natives would occasionally be recruited as
soldiers, hunters and fur traders by the Euros, overall, they were a people in decline for much of
the last 300 years, and have only recently begun to enjoy equal and dignified treatment under the
law. You can learn more about Canadas aboriginal people in the First Nations chapter.
Exploration and Colonization (1534-1756)

Canadians are taught that the symbolic start date of the European conquest of North
America occurred in 1534, when a French explorer named Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) sailed
from the Atlantic Ocean into modern-day Quebec via the St. Lawrence River and stuck a

giant crucifix in the shore, claiming all he could see for the King of France. Plucky though he
was, Cartiers attempt to establish a permanent settlement failed, and it was not until 1603 that
another French explorer, Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), actually got the ball rolling. A
zealous missionary, expert navigator, savvy governor and visionary nation-builder, Champlain
presided over the founding of the colony of New France, creating several permanent cities for
French immigrants, notably Quebec City (1608), Trois-Rivires (1634) and, after his death,
Montreal (1642). As the years went on, the French eventually moved away from the St.
Lawrence coast and into central North America, where they set up colonies in the vast Ohio
valley region and modern-day Louisiana.

Founded in 1670, a British fur corporation known as the Hudson's Bay Company quickly bought
up much of the good land in the Canadian north, which it then ran directly. The company sold its
land back to Canada in the 19th century, but still hangs around today in the form of a popular
chain of HBC department stores.
The British landed in North America around the same time as Champlain, and quickly set about
building happy little colonies of their own. Starting with famous settlements such as Jamestown
(1607), Plymouth (1620) and Boston (1630), the Brits would eventually assemble an impressive
collection of 13 separate colonies along the eastern coast of North America, known collectively
as New England. In 1670, the 13 were joined by the impressive acquisition of Ruperts Land, a
vast stretch of territory surrounding Hudsons Bay, on the north coast of the continent.
In those days, the simple colonial economies were based around killing animals and selling their
skins back to Europe, where rich people could turn them into fashionable hats. This was known
as the fur trade, and the French were a lot better at it than the English, in large part because

Frances colonies occupied much more of central North America, where all the animals lived,
rather than the less forested coastal areas, which the Brits controlled.
Jealous of their rivals, the British soon decided to invade the French colonies, and in 1756 the
Seven Years War (or French-Indian War) broke out between England and France. Its easily
the most important war in Canadian history.
End of France, Rise of Britain, Start of America (1756-1776)

James Wolfe (1727-1759) and the Marquis de Montcalm (1712-1759) were the respective
commanders of the British and French forces in the Seven Years War. Both died during the Battle
of the Plains of Abraham, and to this day, remain enormously important symbolic figures of
either British triumph or French victimhood.
Though the French had more people in North America, they had fewer soldiers. A series of largescale, surprise British attacks on major French cities generated a string of early French defeats,
before the British secured final victory in the decisive 30-minute Battle of the Plains of
Abraham (1759).
The terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763) that ended the war were terrible from a French
perspective: all of their North American colonies were handed over to the British, which were
then merged into a new British mega-colony called Quebec. But the British werent completely
sore winners. Anxious about being outnumbered, they promised to respect French law and the
French Catholic church in their new colony and not just attempt to deport all the French
people, either. It was a weird way to run a supposedly British colony, but the severe population
imbalance didnt give the English a lot of options.
Controversy over the conquest of New France quickly spread throughout the British Empire, and
barely had the Seven Years War concluded when unrest began to rise in the 13 colonies of New
England. Among other things, the New Englanders resented the way their British governors were
managing North America in the aftermath of the French defeat, limiting their ability to migrate

and settle in Britains newly-acquired western territories and propping up what was seen as a
fundamentalist Catholic military dictatorship in Quebec.
In 1776, the New Englanders declared independence from Britain and fought a self-proclaimed
Revolutionary War (1775-1783) that ended with the creation of a new country free from British
rule: the United States of America. But not all of Britains colonies joined in. The far-north
English colony of Nova Scotia, sometimes called the 14th colony, refused to participate, and
surprisingly, so did the conquered French subjects of Quebec. Both groups felt that, despite
Englands abuses, their rights and security were ultimately better trusted to stable,
reliable Britain than some crazy gang of rebels.
The Loyalists and the Partition of Quebec (1776-1791)

This 1901 painting ("Tory Refugees On Their Way to Canada," Howard Pyle) depicts a common,
romanticized image of the weary but noble Loyalist exile. Note the angry mob in the distance.
Not that the Revolutionary War was universally popular in the 13 colonies, either, of course.
Large segments of the New England population did not support the Revolution at all, and after
independence was declared, trekked northward to Quebec, and a return to British rule. These
migrants, dubbed Loyalists for their loyalty to Britain and its King, are some of the most
important settlers in Canadian history, but their precise motivations remain debated to this day.
One perspective has been to view the Loyalists as fundamentally conservative folk (dubbed
Tories after the conservative faction in English politics), dedicated to the cause of monarchy,
Empire, and hierarchy, rather than revolutionary American notions of republicanism, democracy
and egalitarianism. Such a class of people would include wealthy merchants, uppercrust politicians and aristocrats, and other folks who had reason to fear the vindictive aftermath
of a revolution staged against their interests. This was a popular theory among those who liked to
think of Canada as a fundamentally more conservative country than the United States, and
indeed, a country that was spawned as a conservative pushback against American radicalism.

More recently, however, a more moderate perspective on the Loyalists has started to become
mainstream. Many historians now argue that the Loyalists comprised a broad cross-section of
New Englanders of all classes, backgrounds and politics, united only in their desire to not live in
a violent, revolutionary war zone with a deeply uncertain future.
In any case, the Loyalists dramatically swelled Quebecs English-speaking population in just a
few short years, causing great concern to the colonys French residents, who were already
anxious enough about the survival of their culture.
In 1791, Britain attempted to alleviate these concerns by splitting Quebec into two colonies,
Upper Canada (for the English) and Lower Canada (for the French). Each colony would
henceforth have its own colonial government, in order to give it a bit of political and cultural
independence from the weirdos next door. Canada, by the way, was an old aboriginal term
meaning village.

Quick Facts:

Britain and Europe first set up colonies in the area that is now Canada in the 1600s.

The fur trade was a hugely important industry for the early colonists.

Britain invaded and conquered the leading French colony, New France, in 1759.

After the American revolution, many pro-British loyalists fled to Canada.

Continue to the history of the 19th century

19th Century Canadian History

A map of British possessions in North America circa 1849. The dark red area would form Canada
in 1867.
When we last left off, the British army had seized the French colony of Quebec, placing
thousands of irate French settlers under English rule. Meanwhile, the 13 British colonies of New
England had just declared independence as the United States of America, which sent hoards of
English-speaking Loyalists northward, looking for somewhere to live that was still under British
rule. They found Quebec. To achieve peace in their now uncomfortably diverse colony, in 1791
the Brits chopped Quebec in half, making one colony into two: Upper Canada for the English,
and Lower Canada for the French.
And now, the next 100 years.
The 1812 War (1812-1814)

In 1814, British soldiers torched the White House, causing President James Madison (17511836) to flee in terror. This powerful gesture of anti-Americanism is often used as a chauvinistic
symbol of pride by certain Canadian nationalists.

Though the British government promised to respect the sovereignty of the United States after the
Revolutionary War (1775-1783), a lot of British elites remained skeptical that the American
experiment with independence would last. As a result, Anglo-American relations remained quite
tense and disrespectful in the early 1800s, with the British Navy routinely harassing American
ships, seizing their goods or forcibly kidnapping and drafting their sailors into British military
service, offering only the justification that once British, always British.
A certain faction of American politicians (sometimes dubbed the War Hawks) soon began
calling for a Second War of Independence against the British, and an American attack against
British armed forces stationed in the Canadian colonies. It was a very controversial proposal. The
United States of those days was a small, poor nation quite ill-equipped to fight the most powerful
country in the world, and many Americans worried a second war with England might actually
weaken their independence, rather than strengthen it. But by 1812 the Hawks had won the
debate, and the U.S. Congress narrowly voted in favour of war.

The British general Issac Brock (1769-1812) is considered the key architect of Britain's
successes in the 1812 War, and is particularly acclaimed for his strategic alliances with antiAmerican aboriginal tribes. Seen here, the massive Brock Memorial obelisk in Niagara, Ontario.
When fighting broke out, the bad behaviour of both sides only reinforced initial suspicions. The
rapid American invasion of Quebec stirred fears that the American government had nothing less
than the complete conquest of North America in mind, while the corresponding British invasion
of Washington,D.C. heightened fears that Americas hard-won independence was in danger of
being lost. Despite two years of heavy fighting on both sides, by 1814 it was clear that no one
was really getting any closer to victory, and the peacemaking Treaty of Ghent merely restored
the pre-war status quo. As historians like to dub it, it was the war nobody won.

But dont tell that to Canadians. In modern times, the War of 1812 has achieved an almost
mythical status as the tale of the time plucky little Canada beat the big, mean USA that was
trying to invade and conquer them. Of course, almost all of the actual fighting for the Canadian
side in 1812 was done by imported British troops, and the Canadian colonies of 1812 obviously
bore little political or cultural resemblance to the independent Canadian nation-state of today.
Yet, for nationalist-types who enjoy the anti-American symbolism of Canada battling off a U.S.
invasion, the war remains a great point of patriotic pride.

The War of 1812, Canadas History magazine

Guide to the War of 1812, Historica-Dominion Institute

Official website, War of 1812 Bicentennial, Department of Canadian Heritage

The Rise of Democracy (1820s1850s)

Now, up to this point, the Canadian colonies had very authoritarian, aristocratic
governments. Though elected assemblies had been introduced to the colonies in the late 1700s,
these were quite weak and powerless, with all real political authority held by a British-appointed
governor. And this was fine when the colonies were filled mainly with illiterate farmers and fur
traders, but by the 1820s Upper and Lower Canada were becoming larger, richer and more
diverse societies. Though the gap between the wealthy landed gentry and everyone else still
remained enormous, a population boom and diversifying economy meant that there was now a
growing number of middle-class professionals in the Canadas people like merchants,
carpenters, doctors, lawyers and journalists, all of whom wanted to have a say in how their
colony was being run.

William Lyon Mackenzie (1795-1861) was a charismatic newspaper publisher and one of the
most famous of the pro-democracy radicals of the mid-19th century. His political career was a
wild whirlwind of elections, arrests and armed rebellions.
The 1830s saw the Canadas enter a considerable period of political unrest, with a well-organized
group of Reformers, led by middle-class, largely French and Catholic professionals, rallying
against the corruption and authoritarian rule of the so-called Family Compact, the clique of
wealthy, self-interested and frequently corrupt British-born landowners and blue bloods who
surrounded the governor and influenced his policies. What the Reformers wanted varied. Some
merely wanted stronger elected assemblies and a system of government more like Britains.
Others, however, went much further and wanted the Canadas to either abandon British
rule altogether and form an independent republic, or apply for U.S. statehood.
Several armed rebellions broke out over this conflict, with Reformers taking to the streets,
brandishing weapons and torching buildings. Many leading provocateurs were either jailed, hung
or exiled to Australia, and in 1838 the frightened British sent over a new governor, Lord
Durham (1792-1840), to examine the situation. Durham, who wrote a famous report on the
matter, concluded that the the colonies were facing two major problems: one, not enough
democracy, and two, an out-of-control French population. He advocated the merging of Upper
Canada and Lower Canada into one United Province of Canada, governed by a proper
parliamentary system so long as the system was rigged to ensure the more conservative
English always held the majority of seats. In 1841 London passed the Act of Union, and
Durhams vision came true.

The Rebellions of 1837-1838, Historica-Dominion Institute

Bio of William Lyon Mackenzie (1795-1861), the leading English-Canadian

rebel leader

Bio of Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786-1871), the leading French-Canadian rebel

leader

The Rise of Federalism (1850s1867)

Though applauded by English colonists, the French saw the Act of Union for pretty much what it
was: a British effort to placate and assimilate them out of existence. To the new joint parliament
that was set up, French voters continued to send radical Reformers, who routinely deadlocked or
opposed legislation as a way of voicing their ongoing displeasure with the state of colonial
government.

The politicians who helped draft the first constitution of the Dominion of Canada are known as
the "Fathers of Confederation," seen here in this iconic mural.
Meanwhile, similar things were going on in Britains Maritime colonies, a small collection of
islands and peninsulas on the Atlantic coast. Initially sparse and underpopulated, an influx of
Loyalist migrants had flooded into the colony of Nova Scotia after the American Revolution,
and in 1784, a chunk was split off to form the new colony of New Brunswick. Like the Canadas,
these colonies experienced similar bouts of political turmoil in the mid-1800s stemming from a
lack of democratic government, but also born from a hopeless economic situation far worse than
anything on the mainland.
From 1861-1865, the United States fought a bitter civil war between its northern and southern
states. The British government, in an embarrassingly ill-conceived move, decided to support the
South, which did not do great things for U.S.-British relations once the North eventually won.
The Americans began to once again see the Canadian colonies to their north as a possible staging
ground for British subversion or attack, and talk of a rematch of 1812 became louder.

This 1870 cartoon shows a young woman representing the Canadian colonies who is faced with a
choice between a warm, grandmotherly figure representing Confederation on the right, or sleazy
ol' Uncle Sam on the left. Stoking fears of American annexation were a huge component of the
pro-Confederation campaign.
For these and other reasons, colonial politicians in the 1860s began to support the idea of
merging all of Englands remaining North American colonies into some sort of unified, jointlyrun confederation. This would give the colonies improved economic and military strength born
from their combined land and resources, while also granting greater local government powers to
groups like the French, who clearly wanted more control over their own affairs. A series of
colonial conferences were held, and members of the various colonial parliaments discussed and
debated what a proposed federation of British North America should look like.
Inspired by the U.S. constitution, but also eager to avoid a repeat of the American Civil War, the
politicians eventually agreed that their colonial confederation should have a single federal
government run by an elected parliament, but also allow each member colony to retain its own
local parliament and prime minister, too. The federal government would be given the power to
make all criminal laws and regulate matters of national importance like currency, trade and
immigration, while the colonies or provinces, as they would now be known would retain
full control over local affairs like education, business and natural resources. A draft constitution
was agreed upon at the Charlottetown Conference of 1864, and approved by the British
government (which was getting a bit tired of dealing with Canadian affairs at this point) on July
1, 1867. A new, self-governing mega-colony known simply as the Dominion of Canada was
formed. The old United Province of Canada was once again split into two pieces, Ontario for the
English and Quebec for the French, which, along with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, became
the confederations first four provinces.

Towards Confederation, a summary of the major events and conferences,

Library and Archives Canada

The Charlottetown Conference, Canada: A Peoples History

Profiles of the leading Fathers of Confederation

Growth of the New Dominion (1867-1905)

The President of the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. hammers in the symbolic "last spike" to
complete MacDonald's giant cross-country railroad on November 7, 1885. This has been called
the most famous photo in Canadian history.
Modern-day Canadians celebrate July 1st as the day Canada became a country, but the
confederation deal of 1867 was not really understood that way at the time. While the new
dominion government had gained a bunch of fresh responsibilities from Britain, Canada
remained a colonial possession of the Empire, albeit an increasingly self-reliant one. London still
retained a number of important powers, however, and it was up to the new confederation to
prove they could be trusted with the ones they had been given.
Canadas first prime minister was a hard-drinking Scot named John A. MacDonald (18151891), who had served as a high-profile conservative politician in the old legislature of the
United Province. A man of enormous ambition and vision, MacDonald wanted an even bigger
Canada than the one he was given, and eagerly set upon expanding the confederations borders in
all directions. To achieve this, he built a giant trans-Canadian railroad from one end of the
continent to the the other, aggressively promoted the migration and settlement of British pioneers
into the largely unexplored west and north, and negotiated Canadas merger with a number of
other lingering British colonies in North America.

For a variety of complex reasons, Louis Riel soured on Canada shortly after leading his colony
into Confederation, and in 1885 led his followers in armed uprising known as the North-West
Rebellion. Easily quelled by Canadian authorities, Riel was arrested and executed for treason,
though the validity of his complaints have made this one of Canadian history's more
controversial episodes.
In 1870, the provisional government of the western British territory of Manitoba, led by the
charismatic Louis Riel (1844-1885), agreed to become Canadas fifth province. They were
followed by the Pacific coast colony of British Columbia in 1871, who threw their lot in with
Canada after receiving MacDonalds assurance that his railroad would reach that far. Two years
later, the tiny Atlantic island colony of Prince Edward Island became province number seven.
They had cockily refused to join the Dominion in 1867, but by 1873 they were so heavily in debt
they had little choice.
By now, the fur trade had all but declined, and in 1868 the once-mighty Hudsons Bay
Company agreed to surrender the lands under its control to MacDonald, and the new acquisition,
which more than doubled Canadas size, was christened the Canadian North-West Territory in
1870. By 1905, settlement to the NWT had increased to the point where its previously vacant
southwestern regions could be carved into provinces eight and nine: Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Canada now stretched unbroken from sea to sea to sea.
When Canadas new prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier (1841-1919) declared in 1900 that the
20th century will belong to Canada! many people believed him. Why wouldnt they?

Quick Facts:

Britain's North American colonies grew significantly in size and wealth during the 19th
century.

A mix of political unrest and armed rebellions led to the establishment of parliamentary
democracy in the colonies.

In 1867, three of Britain's North American colonies merged to form "Canada," triggering
the birth of the modern country.

Canada's first prime ministers were able to expand Canada's borders by absorbing other
parts of North America.

20th Century Canadian History

The new Canadian Way of Life

Technological advancements saw elaborate new factories arise across Canada during the late
19th and early 20th century allowing thousands of Canadians including women to gain
new forms of employment.

Originally a nation of farmers, loggers, and fur traders, the dawn of the 20th century saw a full
scale transformation of Canadian society. As new provinces were settled and colonized in the late
1800s, new cities began to spring up, and by the 1910s over 50% of all Canadians were living
urban, rather than rural lives for the first time. The development of new machines under the
frantic period of modernization known as the Industrial Revolution saw a dramatic growth in
city-based factory work. Canadas raw natural resources were now being processed into useful
products such as lumber, textiles, and meat creating all sorts of new jobs that got people off
the farm and out of the woods.
An influx of immigrants, originally intended to settle uninhabited parts of the Canadian west,
had likewise changed the fundamental ethnic makeup of the colony. No longer simply French
and English, large numbers of Canadians were now Irish, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Dutch, or
Scandinavian and even some Chinese and Japanese, too. To this day, the ten years between
1906 and 1916, when Canada welcomed some two million new residents, remain the countrys
largest population boom.
Under the 15-year leadership of Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier (1841-1919, served 18961911), Canada pursued policies that yielded great economic growth, and a rising standard of
living for almost everyone. True, some fat, top-hatted people were getting much richer than
others and much faster but overall, considering the state of much of the rest of the planet,
things in Canada seemed pretty sweet.
World War I (1914-1918)

In 1914 Germany invaded Belgium, which forced Britain to go to war with Germany due to an
alliance the countries had at the time. All of Britains colonies including Canada were then
promptly drafted to fight alongside the motherland. It was an awkward reminder that despite the
countrys emerging status as one of the wealthiest, most industrialized, modern societies on
earth, Canada was still but a mere colonial possession of a much stronger empire, still
unauthorized to run its own foreign affairs.

World War I exposed many soliders to horrifying new forms of warfare, and many returned home
badly mangled. The Canadian government actively sought to censor photographs such as these,
lest they weaken already shaky morale.
The French-Canadian residents of Quebec were particularly resentful. They had no interest in
fighting Englands wars and viciously opposed any efforts by the federal government to
impose a national draft. The Canadian prime minister of the time, Robert Borden (1854-1937,
served 1911-1917), was a strong supporter of the war effort, but was similarly skeptical of
Britains sense of entitlement regarding the service of colonial troops. Behind the scenes, he
forcibly insisted that if Canadians were to be used to fight the Empires battles, at the very
minimum Canada should have greater say in how those wars were fought.
The heroic sacrifices of Canadian soldiers in key European fronts such as the Battle of Vimy
Ridge in France (1917), where over 10,000 Canadians were killed, solidified public opinion that
Canada was a mature nation in its own right, and deserved to be recognized as such.
Canada Gains Independence (1918-1931)

In the aftermath of the war, successive Canadian governments, backed by the governments of
other white-run British colonies like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, aggressively
lobbied Britain to restructure the Empire to allow its colonies greater independence. The idea that
Britain always knew best, or even that Britain was in some way superior to its colonies made less
and less sense in a world where the British dominions were increasingly wealthy, important
world powers in their own right.

Even after gaining political independence from Britain, Canada kept its ties to the British Crown.
Here we see Prime Minister King with King George VI (1895-1952) and the late Queen Mother
(1900-2002).
In 1926, an Imperial Conference in London featuring all the colonial prime ministers passed a
resolution declaring that Britain and its dominions were, in fact, equal in status, and not merely
master and subjects. In 1931, the British Parliament went even further, and passed a law known
as the Statute of Westminster, which formally took away Britains ability to make laws for
Canada and the other advanced colonies.
Instead of an Empire, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Ireland, and South Africa
were said to form a Commonwealth in which they all shared loyalty to the same king, but had
full independence in terms of their domestic and international policies. For all intents and
purposes, Canada was now an independent country. Only in the realm of constitutional
amendments did Britain still hold control.
Depression and War (1931-1945)

But not everything was jolly for Canada in the aftermath of the First World War. After a brief
economic boom in the 1920s, a severe, worldwide economic depression hit the nation hard in
the 1930s, putting millions out of work and plunging millions more into miserable poverty.
Desperate Canadian workers and voters became increasingly drawn to radical ideas and political
parties, and new movements including socialism, communism, fascism, Social Credit monetary
theory, and farmers rights militancy steadily grew in influence across the country. It was a time
of radicalism, but not all outcomes were equally tumultuous. Early feminist protests earned
Canadian women the right to vote in 1918, for instance, and union activists helped abolish child
labour in the 1920s.

This famous photo shows a young Canadian boy saying goodbye to his father heading off to war.
By 1939, however, the nations leaders had become distracted by political happenings in Europe.
Britain had declared war on Adolph Hitlers (1889-1945) fanatic Nazi regime in Germany, and
although Canada was no longer obligated to do anything about it, pro-British sentiment remained
strong. The government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King (1874-1950) passed a declaration of
war against Germany one week later, and Canadian troops were once again sent to Europe.
When Britain declared war on Germanys Asian ally Japan in 1941, Canada once again followed
suit, and the war expanded to the Pacific.
The Second World War Canadas first to be fought under Canadian command involved a
massive moblization of people and resources, both at home and abroad. Over one million
Canadians would serve in the countrys armed forces, while the wartime production of
ammunition, armaments, and vehicles gave an enormous boost to the depression-plagued
economy. Overseas, Canadian troops would play a critical role on several of the wars key fronts,
notably the failed battles of Hong Kong (1941) and Dieppe (1942), and the more successful
invasion of Sicily (1942), and liberation of the Netherlands (1944-45).
Though the wars end in 1945 would be widely celebrated, one uncomfortable fact remained: the
bulk of Canadas fighting was done by English-Canadians. French-Canadians once again largely
opposed the war, and vigorously opposed a national draft. Canadians of Japanese decent,
meanwhile had little choice one way or another for the duration of the war they had been
rounded up and placed in internment camps in rural communities far away from big cities, an
episode of racism that today remains one of the countrys darkest shames.
Post-war Boom Times (1945-1959)

The war had changed Canada, both in terms of economic development and national pride.
Wartime industrialization had dramatically grown Canadas manufacturing sector, allowing
Canadians to become a world leader in new industries like car-building and chemical processing,
while the 1947 discovery of oil in the province of Alberta put Canada on the map as a petroleum
superpower. As education became more affordable, more Canadians were likewise able to pursue
careers in new, non-physical sectors of the economy, such as science, finance, engineering,
media, and of course, an ever-growing government bureaucracy.

1967 was Canada's 100th birthday, and centennial celebrations were held across the land, the
most famous of which was the Expo '67 in Montreal. World leaders and celebrities all gathered in
the city to eat cake and party, helping put modern Canada on the map.
All of this allowed more Canadians than ever to enjoy comfy, middle class jobs and lifestyles,
and the growth of suburban communities in previously empty areas surrounding the cities, where
Ma, Pa and the kids could live in small houses with their own yard and white picket fence,
reflected the new standard of Canadian living.
Canadas post-war governments of the 1950s and 60s further consolidated the gains of Canadian
independence from Britain. In 1952, Canada said goodbye to its last British-appointed governor,
the Viscount Alexander (1891-1969), and turned the office into a symbolic position to be filled
by Canadian citizens. The dominion of Newfoundland on the Maritime coast, which, like
Canada, had previously been a self-governing British colony, agreed to join the Canadian
confederation in 1949, giving Canada its 10th province and present-day borders. After much
debate, in 1965 a uniquely Canadian flag, the Maple Leaf, was adopted, and the Union Jack
went down over Canadas Parliament for the final time.

In foreign affairs, Canada worked equally hard to move out of Britains shadow, and earn a
reputation as a moderate, compassionate middle power, skilled at diplomacy and negotiation,
rather than warmaking. Though over 500 Canadians would die fighting Communist forces in the
Korean War (1950-1953), Canadas refusal to participate in the American-led War in Vietnam
(1964-1973) earned the country a reputation for moderation and restraint during the multi-decade
Cold War against the Soviet Union.
Conflict with Quebec (1959-1980)

The French-Canadians never really recovered from being conquered by the British in 1759.
Desperate to avoid becoming another Louisiana where their French culture would be
assimilated out of existence by chauvinistic Anglo-Saxons, for the next 200 years, the province
of Quebec existed as an ultra-conservative, extremely Catholic, and largely feudal, agrarian
society that shut itself off from much of the modernization that had occurred in the rest of
Canada. The idea that it was better to be poor and French than rich and English was very much
the defining ideology of the times.

A paperboy brandishing the headline "WAR MEASURES ACT INVOKED," declaring that
Quebec had been placed under a kind of martial law. The appropriateness of this controversial
decision remains debated to this day.
But slowly the old ways began to break down. After the death of Quebecs long-serving
reactionary prime minister Maurice Duplessis (1890-1959), Quebec society underwent a phase
known as the Quiet Revolution where a new crop of French-Canadian politicians and
educated professionals helped aggressively modernize the province, making it more secular and
industrialized, with greater corporate ownership and wealth concentrated in French, rather than
Anglo-Canadian, hands.
But many Quebeckers felt things were not improving fast enough. Separatism the idea that
Quebec was too different from the rest of Canada to exist as a province, and could only realize its
full potential as an independent country began to grow in popularity during the 1960s,
spurned both by Quebecs poor economy and growing sense of self-reliance. This being the

sixties, a certain radical vein of Quebec separatists turned to Marxism and terrorism, with the
Front de Libration du Qubec emerging as the movements main terror group, setting off
hundreds of bombs in government buildings across the province.
In 1970 FLQ terrorists kidnapped and killed the vice-premier of Quebec, Pierre LaPorte (19211970), prompting Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000) to declare martial law
in the province, deploying the military to restore order. Dubbed the October Crisis, hundreds of
Quebeckers with suspected separatist sympathies were rounded up and thrown in jail often
with scant evidence in a move that earned Trudeau great acclaim in English Canada, but
considerably less so amongst the French. An openly separatist Quebec government, led by
Premier Rene Levesque (1922-1987) was elected in 1976, and a referendum on separation from
Canada was held in 1980. It failed, but the dynamic of Canadian-Quebec relations had forever
been changed.
A Constitution that Works (1980-1993)

Prime Minister Trudeau, a charismatic, eccentric, and often authortiarian figure who led
Canada for almost 16 years between 1968 and 1984, nearly single-handily determined Canadas
political priorities during the 70s and 80s even after he left power. A Quebecer himself,
Trudeau believed that much of Canadas French-English tension could be alleviated under a new
Canadian constitution that both protected Quebecs French language and culture while also
respecting the principle that all citizens were equal under the law.

Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926) signs the Constitution Act, as Prime Minister Trudeau looks on.
The result of years of intense negotiation with the provincial premiers, Trudeaus new
Constitution Act (1982) declared that Canada was a bilingual nation where all citizens had a
protected right to speak either French or English, while a new Charter of Rights (1982) finally
enshrined the basic civil rights of all Canadians, including freedom of speech, religion, and
movement. Perhaps most importantly of all, the Constitution Act and Charter were also the final
laws Britain would ever pass for Canada; following their approval, only Canada itself would be
able to amend its own constitution.

Though the passage of the Constitution Act and Charter occurred amid amongst much patriotic
pomp and circumstance, not everyone was celebrating. Quebecs separatist government had
remained opposed to the whole process the only province to do so. From the French
perspective, the new Canadian constitution was not much better than the old one: there was far
too much emphasis on equality and not enough on recognizing and protecting Quebecs
distinctiveness. No sooner was the Constitution brought home than politicians immediately
began trying to tinker and fix it, in order to win Quebecs approval.
Trudeaus successor as prime minister, Brian Mulroney (b. 1939, served 1984-1993) embarked
upon two ambitious campaigns to revise the Constitution Act in a way that would finally please
the French province, but both efforts ultimately failed after long, polarized national debates.
Quebecs signature remains symbolically absent from the Canadian Constitution to this day.
Turmoil (1993-2000)

The 1990s were an era of great political turbulence for Canada, a time when it was not
uncommon to open the newspaper and read enormous scary headlines like WILL CANADA
SURVIVE? For starters, the economy was in terrible shape. Excessive spending during the
Trudeau era had driven the country to the brink of bankruptcy, and though Prime Minister
Mulroneys centre-right government attempted to fix the problem through deregulation,
privatization, and tax reform, it was not until the tenure of Jean Chretien (b. 1934, served 19932003) that the books were finally balanced through unpopular cuts to social programs like
welfare and pensions.

Fear of what Quebec's departure would mean for the rest of Canada particularly the Canadian
economy prompted many Canadians across the country to rally to the province's defence.
Meanwhile, regional cleavages continued to dominate the countrys politics and no longer just
from Quebec. The fast-growing Canadian west, led by the wealthy, oil-rich province of Alberta,
began to feel increasingly shut out of national politics, despite its large population and ample

riches. The federal governments National Energy Program (1980), which effectively
nationalized much of Albertas oil despite the fact that the management of natural resources
was a provincial jurisdiction under the Constitution caused massive outrage, as did
increasingly strict bilingualism requirements for federal politicians and bureaucrats that seemed
to herald the creation of a permanently Quebec-dominated political class.
The emergence of two new, highly successful political parties in the 1993 federal election the
right-wing, western-based Reform Party, and the separatist Bloc Quebecois both greatly
upset the stability of the traditional Canadian two-party system, and threatened to make Canada a
more ungovernable country than ever. Things only got worse when a new separatist government
in Quebec held a second referendum on Quebec separation in 1995 and only failed by a
margin of less than one percent.

Quick Facts:

The 20th century saw Canada emerge as a major industrialized country with a modern
economy.

Canada participated in both world wars and used this participation as leverage to earn full
independence from Britain.

Since the war, a major source of political unrest has been the separatist ambitions of the
French province of Quebec.

Successive Canadian governments have used symbols and government policy to help
define the "Canadian identity."

21st Century Canadian History

Obviously, attempting to write anything definitive about 21st century Canadian history is
ridiculously premature. Were only entering the centurys second decade, after all, and a lot will
no doubt happen in the remaining eight. But it may still be useful to review a few current events,
just to bring us fully up to date.
The 2000s So Far

The early 2000s saw Canadas political situation stabilize after two decades of turmoil. A lot of
scary movements that seemed intense in the eighties or nineties simply fizzled out, and suddenly
became boring non-issues.
After spending decades obsessing over the question of secession from Canada, Quebecers in
2003 voted decisively to cast their separatist government, led by the Parti Quebecois, out of
power, in an outcome many analysts attributed to growing separation fatigue with the

nationalist issue. That same fatigue was later reconfirmed in the federal election of 2011, when
almost every Quebec separatist candidate running for a seat in the Canadian parliament was
soundly defeated, reducing the separatist caucus in the House of Commons from 47 to only four.
In such a context, a third referendum on French-Canadian independence seems further away than
ever.
Canadas two conservative political parties Reform and the Progressive Conservatives
merged in 2003, and in 2006, Stephen Harper (b. 1959), a man whose political origins traced
back to the western protest movement of the 1980s, became the first right-of-centre Canadian
prime minister in over a decade. After three terms in office, he lost a 2015 bid for a fourth term
to Liberal Justin Trudeau (b. 1971), the charismatic son of former prime minister Pierre Elliott
Trudeau (b. 1919-2000).

After the Islamist terrorist attacks that struck New York City on September 11, 2001, Canada
joined with other NATO countries in invading Afghanistan and deposing the fundamentalist
Taliban regime. Canada's last combat mission in Afghanistan officially ended in 2010, and the
final Canadian troops left the country in 2014.
Already underway in the late 1990s, the information revolution of the early 21st century
brought enormous change to the lives of Canadians, with personal computers, cell phones and
the Internet becoming must-haves across the country. Just as the dawn of the 20th century
introduced new types of work through the mainstreaming of factories and machines, so too does
the 21st promise to create all sorts of new jobs in fields such as programming, engineering and
social media.
But it may take a while before those jobs start coming. Like much of the world, Canada was hit
hard by the global recession of 2008, which saw unemployment jump and forced many

employers to embark upon layoffs and other tough cost-cutting measures in order to balance their
worsening bottom lines. Comparatively speaking, however, Canada experienced worse
economic turmoil in the 1990s, and due to the financial reforms of that era, has avoided some of
the debt and banking problems that now threaten to cripple other western countries.

Quick Facts:

The 21st century has seen Canada enter a period of political and economic stability after
years of turmoil.

Massive technological changes involving computers and the Internet have dramatically
altered the day-to-day lives of Canadians.

Canadians enter the second decade of the 2000s mostly upbeat and optimistic about the
future.

Regions of Canada

Canada is a giant, unwieldy thing, sprawling over 5 000 miles from coast to coast and containing
over nine million square kilometers of land. To get a handle on all this geography, Canadians
split up their country in a number of different ways.
Canada is a federation of 13 self-contained, self-governing units known as provinces and
territories. In more casual conversation, its also common to talk of Canada as being split into
around six regions; large geographic zones that share certain things in common, such as
climate, landscape, industry, demographics, and (increasingly) political ideology and identity.
Click on an area of the map below to learn more about that specific part of Canada.

Canadian Geography

Canada is something of a paradox: a country that is both large and small at the same time. Landwise, only the Russian Federation occupies more sheer territory, yet when it comes to people,
Canada trails behind many European countries nearly one-thirtieth its size. The explanation

stems from Canadas unique geography, which is, all things considered, rather unfriendly to
humans. Around 90 per cent of Canadas land is uninhabited, and most Canadians live clustered
together in a handful of large cities close to the U.S. border.
Landmass

Canada occupies the top half of the North American continent, where it borders only one other
country: the United States to its south (and north-east, via the isolated state of Alaska). The
countrys national motto, From Sea to Sea, captures the vastness of the nation, as Canada
quite literally stretches from the Pacific Ocean on its western coast to the Atlantic Ocean on its
east. Some have even suggested adding a third to Sea in the motto, to reflect the fact that the
country reaches high enough north to touch the Arctic Ocean as well.
Canadian geography unfolds in two basic directions: west to east and north to south. The more
north you go, the colder, rockier, snowier, and overall less suitable for living the country gets,
which explains why few people go through the hassle. From west to east, the story is more
complicated, as Canada contains a vast array of geographic diversity encompassing everything
from lush green valleys to dry, sandy deserts.
West Coast

The picturesque combination of mountains, evergreens, and rivers that defines interior British
Columbia.
The West Coast of Canada (containing the province of British Columbia and known by
geographers as the Cordillera Region) is the most mountainous part of the country, and contains
the Coastal Range mountains that stretch down from Alaska all along Canadas Pacific coast.

Farther east lies the Canadian portion of the Rocky Mountains, which forms British Columbias
border with the province of Alberta. These mountains are home to massive evergreen forests and
a diverse assortment of wildlife, much of which has historically formed the postcard cliched
images of Canada.
Between the two Pacific mountain ranges lie mostly rich, green valleys but also a small, warm,
dry region in the southern interior known as the Okanagan. Insulated by the mountains, this
desert-like area has proven a hospitable climate for growing fruit and vegetables, making it a
natural home for some of Canadas largest orchards and wineries.
The Prairies

The rocky terrain of the Canadian badlands in Drumheller, Alberta.

Moving east, the land dramatically flattens and the mountains disappear. This vast territory,
known as the Prairies, spans the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and
houses some of the driest, least forested parts of the country. Wide-open fields and flat, arable
land have made the region the base of Canadian agriculture, but is considerably less popular with
tourists. Southeastern Alberta features a mostly arid, desert-like landscape known for its rocky
soil and hoodoos massive gravity-defying stone formations.
Though often overlooked, the landscape of the northern region of the prairie provinces is
considerably more hilly and forested than the more famous plains of the south.
Central Region

Brightly coloured leaves mark the beginning of fall in provinces like Ontario and Quebec, which
are home to vast forests of deciduous trees.
Central Canada, containing the countrys two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, exists on a
massive geographic land form known as the Canadian Shield that gives much of the country its
distinctive shape. Hollowed out by giant Hudsons Bay in the middle and bordered by the Great
Lakes below, the area, also known as the Laurentian region, is a mostly green landscape of
rolling hills, grassy fields, and deciduous forests, though the north remains comparatively barren
and rocky.
Both Ontario and Quebec are dotted with thousands of small lakes and rivers, many of which are
surrounded by moist wetlands home to iconic Canadian animals such as the beaver and moose.
Most human residents of the region live in what is known as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
Lowlands area, a stretch of low elevation and fertile farmland located around the coasts of Lake
Ontario and the massive St. Lawrence River, both of which flow into the Atlantic Ocean.
Atlantic Canada

Rich in iron oxide, the soil in the Canadian Maritimes is known for its distinctive red colour.
Lastly, and farthest east, we have the Appalachian region, encompassing the four Atlantic
provinces of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia,
which are all either islands or peninsulas in the Atlantic Ocean.
A mix of rocky coasts and forested interiors, Atlantic Canadas landscape has been shaped by its
proximity to the ocean, with steep cliffs, high tides, and long coastal fjords. Much of the interior
is densely forested and low in elevation, though the Appalachian Mountain Range does extend
into parts of northern New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
In contrast to other parts of Canada, the small Atlantic provinces are known for being densely
populated, and only Newfoundland features large portions of entirely uninhabited land.
The North

The Canadian north is a somewhat amorphous geographic designation. All the provinces, save
the Maritimes, contain dry, largely barren and mostly uninhabited northern areas prone to long,
cold winters, heavy snow, and perpetually frozen soil.

Because Canada's arctic is almost entirely uninhabited, the Canadian government has long
struggled to maintain its claim of control over northern North America. In particular, there are
growing fears that other countries, such as Russia and Denmark (via Greenland), are actively
undermining Canadian sovereignty in the region.
In a more specific sense, however, the North can mean the northern half of Canada that contains
the countrys three northern territories, Yukon, Nunavut, and the creatively-named Northwest
Territories. Though the Yukon possesses a more forested, Cordillera-style environment in
contrast to Nunavut and the NWT, all three feature mostly rocky, barren terrain with only sparse
vegetation.
The extreme north of Canada, where virtually no humans live at all, is an archipelago of
massive islands covered by snowy tundra, vast, frozen glaciers, and towering mountains. Home
to polar bears, seals, and narwhals but almost no human beings this unique and exotic
region forms an important part of Canadas image, even if its an area few will ever visit in
person.
Canadian Weather

Canada's snow-capped peaks have proven a tourist mecca for skiers, particularly the mountain
resort of Whistler, British Columbia, which co-hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Weather is a controversial topic with Canadians, born from a mix of frustration and
defensiveness. On one hand, Canada is, undeniably, one of the coldest countries in the world,
with temperatures in many cities dipping below -20(C) in the winter (December-March),
complete with heavy snowfalls, icy winds, and frozen streets. On the other hand, winter is only
one of the countrys four seasons, and most inhabited parts of Canada also enjoy relatively mild
autumns (September-December), pleasant springs (March-June), and warm summers (JuneSeptember). The common international perception that Canadians suffer through harsh cold all
year round is one of the most irritating stereotypes to Canadians travelling abroad.
Canadians that live near the Atlantic or Pacific coasts usually experience minimal snow, but long,
heavy periods of rainfall in the fall and winter, and a generally moist, grey climate. In the sunny
Prairie region, rain is considerably rarer, but the dry air can occasionally prompt thunderstorms
and tornadoes. Central Canada has infamously cold, snowy winters, but these usually give way
to wet springs and hot, humid summers. Northern Canada tends to have the most extreme
weather polarization of all, with as much as 24 straight hours of continuous sunlight in the
summer, and near-perpetual darkness in the fall. Even in the North, however, there are still
periods of relative warmth and green at least in the areas where humans have chosen to live.
Canadian Natural Resources

Canadas status as one of the planets richest nations is hardly a mystery. There are very few
valuable minerals, chemicals, or elements that cannot be found in at least some part of Canada,
giving the country a huge abundance of natural resources to sell.

The extraction of natural resources comes with a price, and pollution and environmental
destruction remain ongoing problems in Canada. The country remains one of the world's leading
emitters of greenhouse gasses, and many of Canada's energy industries are woefully inefficient,
pumping a great deal of harmful waste products into the land and air.
Perhaps most famously, the prairie province of Alberta is home to some of the largest deposits of
both oil and natural gas on the North American continent, a fact which has allowed Canada to
emerge as one of the 21st centurys major energy-producing superpowers. The province is also
home to the worlds largest proven oil sands reserves, a fact which, if added alongside the
countrys traditional petroleum reserves, puts Canada in a firm second-place behind Saudi Arabia
as the worlds most oil-rich nation.
All provinces and territories (save tiny Prince Edward Island) have ample mineral mines,
though what exactly is harvested varies from province to province. Canada is one of the worlds
leading producers of zinc, which is found in most parts of the country, as well
as uranium and potash, which are mined mainly in Saskatchewan. Large amounts of nickel and
copper are found in Northern Ontario and Manitoba, while iron and coal have been traditional
staples of the Maritime region. Gold has historically been found just about everywhere, while
diamonds are becoming big business in Canadas North. Controversially, Canada has also
remained one of the worlds most active producers of the dangerous insulator known as asbestos,
which is mainly mined in Quebec and sold to Third World countries with lax public safety laws.

Quick Facts:

Canada is the world's second-largest country, yet much of the land is uninhabited.

The main regions of Canada are the mountainous west coast, flat central prairies, eastern
forested plains and frozen north.

Almost every region in Canada is home to vast forests, rivers and lakes.

Canadian weather is often harsh and cold, particularly during the long winter months.