canada, part 2

8/14/2019 Canada, Part 2

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CANADA, Part 2. Page 8.

Population and immigration

In 2006 the census counted a total population of 31,612,897 in Canada. Population growth of 5.4% ascompared with 2001 comes chiefly from immigration. About three-quarters of Canada's population livewithin 150 kilometers of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in theQuebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably the Greater Golden Horseshoe including Toronto and area,Montreal, and Ottawa), the BC Lower Mainland (consisting of the region surrounding Vancouver), and theCalgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta.

Left: Michalle Jean, (born September 6, 1957, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is thecurrent (27th) Governor General of Canada. Jean was appointed by QueenElizabeth II, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin. Thus she isethnically of African background, and geographically comes from the Caribbean.

There are 43 ethnic groups numbering not less than 100 thousand members. Thelargest ethnic group is English (21%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish(15.2%), Irish (13.9%), German (10.2%), Italian (5%), Chinese (4%), Ukrainian

(3.6%), and First Nations (i.e. Aboriginal people) (3.5%). Approximately, one third ofthe census respondents identified themselves as "Canadian. Canada's aboriginal

population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average.

Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family

reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major

urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

In common with many other developed countries, Canada is experiencing a demographic shift towards an

older population, with more retired citizens and fewer people of working age. In 2006, the average age of

the civilian population was 39.5 years.

Religion. Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According tothe 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identify themselves as being Christians; of this, Catholics make upthe largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church ofCanada, which was founded in 1925 as a merger of four Christian denominations. About 16.5% of

Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% are affiliated with religions other thanChristianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism at 1.1%.


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Education. Canadians are famous for being a very educated nation.Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Eachsystem is similar, while reflecting regional history, culture andgeography. The mandatory school age ranges from between 57 to 1618 years, contributing to a 99% adult literacy rate. Postsecondary

education (on the right) is also administered by provincial and territorialgovernments, who provide most of the funding; the federal governmentadministers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships.In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondaryeducation rate reaches 51%.

Culture

Left: A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house"in Victoria, British Columbia.

Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British,French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has alsobeen influenced heavily by American culture because of itsproximity and migration between the two countries. The greatmajority of English speaking immigrants to Canada in 1755-1815 were Americans from the Lower Thirteen Colonies whowere drawn there by promises of land or exiled because of

their loyalty to Britain during the American War for Independence. American media and entertainment arepopular, if not dominant, in English Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products andentertainers are successful in the U.S. and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward aunified "North American" or global market.

Aboriginal influences

There were, and are, many distinct Aboriginal peoples across Canada,each with its own culture, beliefs, values, language, and history. Muchof this legacy remains celebrated artistically, and in other ways, inCanada to this day. Part of the emblem of the Vancouver 2010 WinterOlympics is an inukshuk, a rock sculpture that is made by stackingstones in the shape of a human figure that is a part of Inuit culture (canbe seen on the right).

Art

The works of most early Canadianpainters followed European trends.During the mid 1800s, CorneliusKrieghoff, a Dutch born artist inQuebec, painted scenes of the life ofthe habitants (French-Canadianfarmers). At about the same time, theCanadian artist Paul Kane paintedpictures of Indian life in westernCanada.

Left: Habitant Farm by CorneliusKrieghoff, 1856


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The Jack Pine by Tom Thomson, 1916 The Red Maple by A.Y. Jackson, 1914

In the first quarter of the 20th century a group of landscape painters called the Group of Seven aimed todevelop the first distinctly Canadian style of painting. All these artists painted large, brilliantly coloredscenes of the Canadian wilderness.

The founders of the group Tom Thomson (died in 1917), J. E. H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, A.J. (AlfredJoseph) Casson, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston and Franklin Carmichael met as employees of thedesign firm Grip Ltd. in Toronto. In 1913, they were joined by A. Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris. They oftenmet at the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto to discuss their opinions and share their art. Tom Thomson(who died in 1917) and Emily Carr were closely associated with the Group of Seven, though neither wereever official members.

This group received financial support from Harris (heir to the Massey-Harris farm machinery fortune) and

Dr. James MacCallum. Harris and MacCallum jointly built the Studio Building in the Rosedale ravine toserve as a meeting and working place for the new Canadian art movement.

Theatre

Canada has a thriving stage theatre scene. Theatre festivals draw many tourists in the summer months,especially the Stratford Festival of Canada in Stratford, Ontario, and the Shaw Festival in Niagara On TheLake, Ontario. The Famous People Players are only one of many touring companies that have alsodeveloped an international reputation. Canada also boasts the world's second largest live theatre festivalthe Edmonton Fringe Festival.

Fringe theatre is a term used to describe alternative theatre, or entertainment not of the mainstream. InLondon, United Kingdom, the Fringe is the term given to small scale theatres, many of them located abovepubs, and the equivalent to New York's Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway theatres.

Left: Edmonton International Fringe

Festival. Nancy Bromley of Vibe Tribe

performs a sword dance. Vibe Tribe is a

unique theatre of music and dance that

uses the tradition of Improvisational Tribal

Style Bellydance. They employ swords, hula

hoops and fireworks using music and styles

from around the world (on the right).


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Right: Shakespeares statue at the FestivalTheatre in Stratford, Ontario.

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival (formerlyknown as the Stratford Festival of Canada) is an

annual celebration of theatre running from April toNovember in the Canadian city of Stratford,Ontario. Theatre-goers, actors, and playwrightsflock to Stratford to take part many of thegreatest American and Canadian actors play rolesat Stratford. It was one of the first and is still oneof the most prominent arts festivals in Canada.

The Festival's primary mandate is to presentproductions of Shakespeare's plays, but it alsoproduces a wide variety of theatre from Greektragedy to contemporary works, includingmusicals. Shakespeares works typicallyrepresent about a quarter of the Festival'sofferings. The Festival Fringe runs during theseason, and features music concerts, readingsfrom major authors, lectures, and discussionswith actors or management.

Left: Stratford Festival Theatre interior.

Sports

Canada's official national sports are ice hockey in the winter and lacrosse in the summer. Ice hockey is a

national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport

Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. After hockey, other popular spectator sports

include curling and football.

Ice hockey

The modern form of ice hockey (on the left) began inCanada in the late 1800s, and is widely consideredCanada's national pastime, with high levels of participationby children, men and women at various levels of

competition. Young Canadian players can begin to competein the amateur league at the age of 7. The most popularleagues are the amateur Canadian Hockey League, andthe professional National Hockey League, which has sixteams in Canada: the Montreal Canadiens, OttawaSenators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames,Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks.

The National Hockey League ( NHL ) is a professionalice hockey league composed of 30 teams in NorthAmerica. It is considered to be the premierprofessional ice hockey league in the world, and one of

the North American major professional sports leagues. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional

sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league champion at the end of each.


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There are more Canadian players in the in the National Hockey League (NHL) than from all othercountries combined. Such stars as Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Guy Lafleur and Bobby Orr havebecome national heroes in Canada. Wayne Gretzky won a gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games.

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Hockey Night in Canada is a longtime national Saturday night television broadcast featuring Canadian

NHL teams produced by CBC Sports. Hockey Nightconsistently remains one of the highest-ratedprograms on Canadian television. It is also the world's oldest sports-related television program still on theair.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse was named Canada's National sport byParliament in 1859, and since 1994 has been the officialsummer sport of Canada.

Lacrosse (on the right) is a full contact team sport played

using a solid rubber ball and long handled racket called a

crosse or lacrosse stick. The head of the crosse has a

loose net strung into it that allows the player to hold the

lacrosse ball. Offensively the object of the game is to use

the lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball in an

effort to score by ultimately hurling the ball into an

opponent's goal. Defensively the object is to keep the

opposing team from scoring and to dispossess them of

the ball through the use of stick checking and body

contact.

Curling is a team sport with similarities to bowlsand shuffle board, played by two teams of four

players each on a rectangular sheet of carefullyprepared ice. Teams take turns sliding heavy,polished granite stones down the ice towards thetarget (which is called the house). Two sweeperswith brooms accompany each rock and use timingequipment and their best judgment along withdirection from their other teammates to help directthe stones to their resting place. The complexnature of stone placement and shot selection hasled some to refer to curling as "chess on ice".

Ukrainians in Canada

The first Ukrainian immigrants to Canada were Iwan Pylypow and WasylEleniak,who arrived in 1891 and brought several families to settle in 1892.Pylypow helped to found the Edna-Star Settlement, the first and largestUkrainian block settlement. But it was Dr Josef Oleskow who is consideredresponsible for the large Ukrainian Canadian population by promoting Canadaas a destination for immigrants from Western Ukraine (the Austrian crown landsof Galicia, and Bukovyna), in the late 1890s. Ukrainians from Eastern Ukraine,which was ruled by the Russian monarchy, also came to Canada, but in smallernumbers than those from Galicia and Bukovyna.

Right: Ukrainian fifteen-kopiyka stamp commemorating the centenary ofUkrainian settlement in Canada, 1891-1991.


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Early Ukrainian immigration to Canada was largely agrarian, and at first Ukrainian Canadiansconcentrated in distinct block settlements in the parkland belt of the Prairie Provinces: Alberta,Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. While the Canadian Prairies are often compared to the steppes of Ukraine,it should be noted that the settlers came from Galicia and Bukovyna which are not steppe lands, but are

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wooded areas in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. This is why Ukrainians coming to Canadasettled in the wooded aspen parklands, in an arch from Winnipeg to the Peace River Country of Alberta,rather than the open prairies further south. As well the feudal nature of land ownership in Austrian Empiremeant that in the Old Country people had to pay thepan (landlord) for all their firewood and lumber forbuilding. Upon arriving in Canada, the settlers often demanded wooded land from officials so that theywould be able to supply their own needs, even if this meant taking land that was less productive for crops.They also attached deep importance to settling near to family, people from nearby villages or otherculturally similar groups, furthering the growth of the block settlements. By 1914, there were also growingcommunities of Ukrainian immigrants in eastern Canadian cities, such as Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton,and Windsor. Many of them arrived from the provinces of Podillia, Volyn, Kyiv and Bessarabia in RussianUkraine. In the early years of settlement Ukrainian immigrants faced considerable amounts of

discrimination at the hands of native-bornCanadians, an example of which was the

internment.

The Ukrainian Canadian internment was partof the confinement of "enemy allies" in Canadaduring and for 2 years after the end of World WarI, lasting from 1914 to 1920. About 5,000Ukrainian men of Austro-Hungarian citizenshipwere kept in twenty-four internment camps andrelated work sites, also known, at the time, asconcentration camps. Another 80,000 wereregistered as "enemy aliens" and obliged toregularly report to the police. The governmentconfiscated whatever little wealth the internedhad.

Above: Commemoration of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp in Banff National Park - the statue isentitled, simply, Why?

Since World War II, most Ukrainians coming to Canada have tended to move to cities in the East, andthere are now large Ukrainian communities in Toronto and Montreal. In fact more Ukrainians live in theEast today than on the Prairies. However, because they make up a much greater percentage of thepopulation in the West, especially in rural areas of the parkland belt, the Ukrainian cultural presence ismore keenly felt in western Canada.

Map of the dominant self-

identified ethnic origins of

ancestors per census division.

Actual physical origins of

ancestors may be different.

Ukrainian-plurality areas are

highlighted in light blue. Note that

Ukrainians are a significant

minority elsewhere; and that,

numerically, most Ukrainians

Canadians live in cities.


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Left: The world's largest pysanka was erected in Vegreville Alberta in

1974, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian

Mounted Police.

Culture

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Having been separated from Ukraine, Ukrainian Canadians have developed their own distinctiveUkrainian culture in Canada. To showcase their unique hybrid culture, Ukrainian Canadians have createdinstitutions that showcase Ukrainian Canadian culture such as Edmonton's Shumka Dance Ensemble,among the world's elite Ukrainian dancers, or the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, where Ukrainianpioneer buildings are displayed along with extensive cultural exhibits.

Right: A Ukrainian dance troupe at the British Columbia UkrainianCultural Festival.

Ukrainian Canadians have also contributed to Canadian culture as a

whole. Actress and comedienne Luba Goy, painter William Kurelek,for example, are well known outside the Ukrainian community.

Historically Ukrainian Canadians were among Canada's poorest andleast educated minorities, but as the process of cultural integrationhas accelerated, this is no longer the case and Ukrainian Canadians are near the national economicaverage.

Perhaps one of the most lasting contributions Ukrainian Canadians have made to the wider culture ofCanada is the concept of multiculturalism which was promoted as early as 1964 by Senator Paul Yuzyk.During and after the debates surrounding the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and BiculturalismUkrainian leaders, such as linguist Jaroslav Rudnyckyj, came out in force against the notion of English -

French biculturalism which they believed denied the contributions other peoples had made to Canada.Partly in response to this, Prime Minister Trudeau shifted Canada to a policy of official multiculturalism.

Language. In addition to the official English and French, many prairie public schools offer Ukrainianlanguage education for children. Generally this is the local Canadian Ukrainian dialect, rather thanStandard Ukrainian.

As of the Canada 2001 Census, 148,085 people in Canada claimed Ukrainian as their sole "mothertongue", the dialect was not specified.

Politics. The Ukrainians have long been at the heart of Canadian socialism. Many Ukrainians were anti-Soviet but a strong minority supported the Communist Party of Canada, and formed an important blocwith that group. They were also important in other Marxist organizations like the Ukrainian Labour FarmerTemple Association (UFLTA). Ukrainians also played a central role in the formation of the Co-operative

Commonwealth Federation and the New Democratic Party.

Left: Ramon John Hnatyshyn (March 16, 1934 December 18, 2002) wasCanada's twenty-fourth Governor General, serving from 1990 to 1995.

Total speakers Percentage of provincial total

British Columbia 13,600 0.35%

Alberta 33,970 1.15%Saskatchewan 19,650 2.04%

Manitoba 26,540 2.40%

Ontario 48,620 0.43%

Quebec 5,125 0.07%


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The nationalist movement was also an important part of the community. After Ukraine becameindependent Canada was one of the first nations to recognize Ukraine. Later Ukrainian Canadians werevital in fundraising to build the Embassy of Ukraine in Ottawa. As well Canada has recognized theHolodomor (Ukrainian Famine) as an act of genocide.

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Religion. Most Ukrainians who came to Canada from Galicia were Greek Catholic and those fromBukovyna were Ukrainian Orthodox. However people of both churches faced a shortage of priests inCanada. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergy came into conflict with the Roman Catholic hierarchybecause they were not celibate and wanted a separate governing structure. At the time, the RussianOrthodox Church was the only Eastern Orthodox Church that operated North America, because they hadarrived first via Alaska, and traditionally Eastern Orthodox churches are territorially exclusive. However,Ukrainians in Canada were suspicious of being controlled from Russia, first by the Tsarist governmentand later by the Soviets. Partially in response to this, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada wascreated as a wholly Ukrainian Canadian controlled alternative. As well the Ukrainian Greek Catholicclergy were eventually given a separate structure from the Roman Church. Today many UkrainianCanadians follow other religions such as Protestantism or none at all.

Left: St. Volodymyr's

Ukrainian Orthodox

Cathedral, Toronto.

Right: St. George's Ukrainian

Catholic Cathedral,

Saskatoon.

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