Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Us canada relations essay
Nafta pros and cons for canada
Nafta pros and cons for canada
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Us canada relations essay
Is Canada going to be swallowed up by the United States? A political cartoon based on Pierre Trudeau's famous quote, 'Living next to you (the United States) is like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twist and grunt.'; was made. This means when something occurs in the United States, we too are affected. If the United States goes to war, because we belong to N.A.T.O., Canada would support their position. If McDonalds, an American based company, were to close down, then many Canadian workers would lose their jobs since McDonalds is well established in Canada. Many Canadian businesses are American owned, such as Ford, Burger King, Chevrolet, Wendy's, and Walmart to name a few. Also, many more sports teams are owned in America than in Canada. For example, only 5 hockey teams exist in Canada, while the United States has at least 5 times more teams. Our players must be payed in American funds, and one American dollar is worth $1.50 in Canada. Those are some ways Canada is being swallowed by the United States.
However, Canada is a valued trade partner for the Americans. For example, the United States has a dire need for our natural resources, such as water. Having polluted their own water supply, the now looks to Canada for the solution to their problem. If Canada were to become a part of the United States, our water would become polluted, forcing the United States government to buy even more clean water from another country for even more people. Also, the differences in our political systems would mean change for both the United States and Canada, which would doubtlessly upset millions of people. Would we have a President or a Prime Minister? Indeed, our 'assimilation' would be difficult. However, youth would have little trouble fitting in, since we wear the same clothes, listen to the same music, watch the same television shows, and play the same games.
But how would the assimilation begin? The answer is simple. If Quebec were to win a referendum and leave Canada, we would lose much of our industry. After Quebec, the maritime provinces would also leave, which would cripple us further. In desperate need of a stable economy, we would begin negotiations with the United States. The House of Commons would become a meaningless symbol, along with many of our historical buildings and monuments.
Canada Is Becoming Too Americanized Today Canada and the United States are major trading partners, allies, and two neighboring countries with a long history of cooperation with each other. But is it possible for Canada to protect its independence and culture living next door to the country so powerful and rich as the United States. Since the Canadian confederation, Canada started developing relations with the U.S. As the years passed by, Canada began to relay on the United States in the national defense. Many Canadians think that the military, political and economical dependence would not make a difference to their daily life.
To start off, I’ll be writing about the life of people in British North America and its significance towards unifying Canada, as well as background knowledge of conflicts that existed. Life in British North America was changing at an alarming rate. New technology and services were being introduced such as railways and steamships. Industries such as building, producing and farming were being introduced. This was in part due to the many immigrants from Britain and France who’d settled. This was dreadful for the First Nations as their land had been taken away even more so than before. More resources were needed for the growing crowd so trade agreements were made. As more people came, the First Nations were even more distanced from the Europeans. Meanwhile, the French and the British wanted the other’s culture to be erased from the
Although Quebec is in Canada, a majority of Quebecers do not identify with the national identity of Canada. Both societies create a sense of identity as well as nationalism (Hiller, 295). Hiller mentions two approaches to assessing Canadian identity; the unitary approach and the segmentalist approach (Hiller, 277). The unitary approach suggests that society consists of people who regardless of their ethnic back ground, identify as belonging to the national society, while the segmentalist approach concentrates on groups and communities that share racial, linguistic, occupational, or cultural similarities (Hiller, 28). While most Anglophones are more unitary or pan-Canadian, Quebec heavily identifies with the segmentalist approach. This dissimilarity of identity perspective may be problematic for the country, at the same time however, it can also be viewed as a struggle where contradictory parties find a way to compromise and reshape Canadian society together (Hiller, 277). Canada’s former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made it his objective to unite Quebec with the rest of Canada. In 1969 Trudeau’s government implemented Bill C-120, otherwise known as the Official Language act, which made French an...
...to identity with at least one of the countries predominate languages, English or French, dictated the degree in which they could participate in Canadian life. According to the Commission, this participation was real under two conditions: “that both societies, the French-speaking as well as the English-speaking, accept[ed] newcomers much more rapidly than they have done in the past; and that the two societies willingly allow other groups to preserve and enrich, if they so desire, the cultural values they prize[d]” (RCBB Book 1 xxv). It creates an interesting take on the acceptance of those “othered” groups, as change was necessary not only on the part of the minorities but also from Canada’s French and English-speakers. The Commissions work remains focused on language and culture, more so than ethnicity amongst a bilingual, bicultural and “othered” Canadian society.
Quebec has struggled with a need to be maitres chez nous “masters of their own house” (Young, 1998). Many attempts at resolving Quebec's issues has resulted in tensions from both sides. Because Quebec has a strong national identity, and do not define themselves as strictly Canadian, Quebec is seen as difficult, unyielding and discontented. Quebec's separation perhaps is inedible and the future of Canada questionable. Canada without Quebec will bring about many complications and whether there is a rest of Canada (ROC) after Quebec a major challenge. Western alienation and the lack of representation in federal affairs will be a factor; moreover, past actions and historical events may have turned Canada into a time bomb, and the deterioration of the provinces the only sulotion. How First Ministers react to Quebec's sovereignty regarding economic factors, political structure, and constitutional issues will be of great importance. Whether emotional issues will play a major role in decision making is subjective; however, it is fair to say that it will be an emotionally charged event and it could either tear apart the ROC or fuse it together. Placing emphasis on investigating what keeps Canada together is perhaps the key to Canada's future, and salvaging a relationship with Quebec.
Many Americans are not aware of the political and economic value of the Canada-U.S. relationship, and Canada is consequently not a priority for them.
Currently, Canada remains the world’s second largest country, full of vast and rich resources from all corners of the nation. None of the accomplishments and achievements that Canada has made to date would have been possible without Confederation. Without intense pressure from the Americans, and without the common goal that a few men shared of unifying a country, Canada would not be the strong, free, independent and united nation that it is today.
In the decades following World War Two, there were a number of movements which focused on global developments. Groups such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were centres of international cooperation. In these dealings there were, of course, great powers; the countries that had the greatest riches and militaries often dominated the global political stage. Beyond that, there were countries which were not the biggest or strongest, but were influential through other means. These were middle powers, and Canada is one of them.
Our government’s predecessors have attempted to eradicate Canada’s first people, which is not only an insult to the indigenous people of the past, but to the present. This country did not start off as a joint endeavor of the two general groups of people that inhabited it during its birth, but decimation and forced assimilation of great traditions and people. The assimilation of a great culture, the destruction of oral histories, and the forced loss of language destroyed the chance trust. Only by teaching disgust towards that type of attitude and action, by not excusing it or attempting to justify, will begin a new age of
Which in turn, created a whole new set of problems or rather anxieties for Canada due to the fact that now, “[The United States] are now the primary market and source of investment for Canadian commerce” (Bow, p. 346). Now instead of the essence of the threat being a physical invasion of the United States, Anti-Americanism in this time period derived from a threat of economic and cultural assimilation. Canada throughout this time period continues to find ways in order to separate themselves from their Western counter-parts. This was especially evident during the 1960s where, “the social and political turbulence… provoked a new wave of liberal anti-Americanism in Canada, focusing on a supposedly endemic pattern of racial conflict, urban violence, cultural polarization and political corruption” (Bow, p. 346). Due to those issues in the United States the sentiment has been more social among its people and it shows with different implementations of policies that Canada has placed or tried to place in order to separate themselves and as a country make themselves look better than the “super powered” United States by comparison. As a result, Canada became to be “proponents of universal health care, national welfare and pension programs and post war social programs…” (Bow, p. 347). The sentiment would evolved further due to the issues regarding the Vietnam war, which not only created a perception that, “America is by nature inclined to an aggressive self destructive foreign policy” (Bow, p. 348), but also is the “first Cold war crisis in which Canada chose to stand apart from the United States, and this affected not only Canadian diplomats’ capacity to influence U.S. decisions, but also Canadian public perceptions of what the war said about American values and priorities” (Bow, p. 348). During the Vietnam war the U.S were mostly criticized for acting
The British North America Act went into effect July 1st, 1867 creating a union known as the Dominion of Canada, but this did not complete the debate on the Confederation issue. Many Nova Scotians continued their opposition to the idea and it would take considerable time before all Nova Scotians would accept the fact of Confederation. “These Nova Scotians, disgruntled at their treatment by Great Britain, found that their loyalty had markedly diminished. The more they considered taking over the responsibility for their own affairs from England, however, the greater trust they had to place in Confederation.”25 Confederation struck a balance between the rights of English and French speaking Canadians. Nevertheless, many divisions, conflicts, and debates would occur not only in Quebec but also in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick over this balance. Economic disparities between the Maritimes and the rest of Canada would also create many problems for the years following 1867. As a result, Confederation can be viewed as a beginning and not an end.
Canada is known by outsiders to be a very peaceful country. But if you ask any Canadian they well tell you that is unfortunately not the case. For there is a large ongoing conflict between Canadians. The conflict is between the French and the English, or more specifically between Quebec and the rest of Canada. As a result of this conflict, along with some wrongdoing and propaganda. Quebec has considered and has gone as far to hold referendums over Separatism (Surette,2014). Separatism is that the province of Quebec separates from the rest of Canada to form its own country. Which would have immense effects on indubitably Quebec but also the rest of Canada (Martin, 2014). This report will focus on the root causes and origin of Quebec Separatism, the current state of Quebec Separatism and finally how we as a society can act towards Quebec Separatism.
The culture of Canada refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that are a representative of Canada and Canadians. Throughout Canada's history, its culture has been influenced by American culture because of a shared language, proximity, television and migration between the two countries. Over time, Canadian-American relations have helped develop Canada’s identity during the years 1945-1982; thus introducing changing social norms, media and entertainment. In support of this, due to the United States being approximately 9.25 times larger in population and having the dominant cultural and economic influence, it played a vital role in establishing Canada’s identity. With Canada being its neighbour, naturally, the United States would influence their way of life upon Canada.
Canada is an example of a nation with the question of a country wide unification among all its citizens on the table since the time of confederation in 1867 and even a few years prior. What some these factors that make Canada different from areas around it? How can a country that dominates such large land mass and that bares such vast cultural differences, be united? Can Canadians ever come to agreement upon the values they hold to be important? The debates of these questions continue to plague Canadian parliaments, especially when examining the differences between Canada and the province Quebec. Even though many argue and hope for Canada’s unity in the future, the differences in political socialization and culture present throughout the country creates a blurry vision of Canadian harmony and makes it extremely difficult to realistically vision Canadian unification. Is that, however, a bad thing?
So is there a possibility that the province of Quebec could separate from the rest of Canada?