Teaching aim: Problem oriented analysis of the nation building process of Canada with special emphasis on the question of first and founding nations and on some specific problems that relate to the political structure of Canada today. Keywords: Native peoples, British and French invasion, fur trade, colonial status, provinces, ethnic conflicts, regional development

As far as is presently known, the first Europeans North American Native peoples encountered were Vikings [1], who arrived c. 1000 A.D as a tiny group at the site of L'anse aux Meadows of today in Newfoundland . The Vikings did not have the sustained strength to displace the Natives and did not stay. No one knows how many Native peoples [2] lived in present day Canada before sustained European contact began c. 1500. Estimates range from a population of under half a million to one million. Most Natives lived a life of movement, mainly dependent for subsistence on hunting and fishing, although there was some agriculture in parts of present southern Ontario and in a few other localities. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, two powerful European countries, France and England, established colonies, and with their strong iron age technologies and proprietary acquisitive attitudes to territory pushed the Natives back and possessed their lands. Intermittently, over a span of many years, the European powers fought among themselves over the territories they had taken from the Natives. Finally, in what in Canada is called the Conquest of 1759/60 [3], the British defeated the French in the wars for North American colonial possessions, and New France became a British possession and colony. Not long afterward, the American Revolution [4] of the 1770s led to the formation of a separate country, the United States, confining the British colonies to the northern part of the continent, the lands that were to become Canada.

Furs obtained from wild animals were in great demand in Europe, and the rapid expansion of the fur trade [5] from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific was of vital importance in delimiting the present territory of Canada. As a result of the extensive operations of the fur trade, Canada was essentially explored from two bridgeheads, the St. Lawrence River and Hudson Bay, both ultimately connected to metropolitan centres in France and England. Led by Natives who knew the local terrain and did the trapping, the traders extended their travels and activities to the Pacific coast using the Peace and Fraser Rivers and land trails, and to the Arctic Ocean using the Mackenzie River, thus roughly defining the far reaches of Canada today.

Administratively, this huge land mass was divided into a number of small British colonies, all part of the British Empire, ruled from London, England. In 1867, three colonies in what is now eastern Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada (consisting of Canada East - Quebec, and Canada West - Ontario) came together in a Canadian confederation [6], the foundation of the Canada of today. The former colonies are now called provinces, and the powers of the central Canadian government and those of the provinces were carefully spelled out in the new federation. Ottawa [7] was the capital of Canada, and each of the provinces had its own capital city. Subsequently other provinces were added: Manitoba in 1870 and British Columbia in 1871, after that colony was promised a transcontinental railway connection; and Prince Edward Island in 1873, after arrangements to pay for its large debt and maintain ferry servives were made. In 1880, British rights to the Arctic islands known to that time were transferred to Canada, but more land remained to be discovered by Europeans. Lands not included in the provinces were in the North West Territories administered directly from Ottawa. Alberta and Saskatchewan were created provinces in 1905 out of lands in the Northwest Territories. The great Norwegian Arctic explorer, Otto Sverdrup [8], sailing under the flag of Sweden, discovered much new land in the northern archipelago west of Ellesmere Island in 1898-1902, but the Arctic territorial claims of the new country of Norway (independent from Sweden in 1905) based on these explorations were amicably resolved by 1930, and the islands remained Canadian territory. Newfoundland and Labrador in 1949, comprised the last territory to join Canada. Northern Canada is divided into two large territories, Yukon and Northwest Territories, and the latter will be divided into two in 1999, Nunavut [9] in the eastern Arctic, and with the territory remaining in the western Arctic yet to be named.

In the nineteenth century, Canada achieved self government as a part of the British Empire. After World War I, it was a member of the League of Nations and today it is a member of the Commonwealth [10], the United Nations [11], and NATO [12]. Canada is a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II [13] the Queen of Canada and the constitutional head of state, and a parliamentary democracy, and a federation.

In discussing the geography of Canada it is useful to divide its immense extent into major regions or sections. In most instances each section is a grouping of provinces and territories commonly recognized by Canadians. Atlantic Canada includes the provinces of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, with the last three as a group also known as the Maritimes. Physically, Atlantic Canada is an intimate interpenetration of ridges, valleys, peninsulas, and islands with many gulfs, bays, and straits, and historically it comprised a number of separate colonial units. The focus of French Canadian life in North America, Quebec, is culturally distinctive in Canada and historically centred on the St. Lawrence River. Ontario, located between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay is the manufacturing and financial focus of Canada, and the media centre of English-speaking Canada. Ontario and Quebec are major sections of Canada in their own right, but together they are often referred to as Central Canada, because of location, reinforced by their concentration of population and substantial economic strength within Canada.

On the mainly horizontal Great Plains with their characteristic open long views to the horizon, the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are grouped together as the Prairie Provinces, named after the southern grasslands, and long identified with abundant agricultural and energy resources. British Columbia, west of the formidable wall of the Rocky Mountains, situated in the mountain ranges, valleys, and plateaus of the Canadian Cordillera, with the mildest climate in the country and great forests, is considered a separate region. The entire area from Manitoba to British Columbia, settled by Europeans somewhat later than the eastern part of Canada, is referred to succinctly as The West. This term has many subtle connotations, because it conveys the sense of a more open, relaxed, spirited society, resenting the power of the financial and governmental institutions located in Central Canada. The West can be a confusing term, because rapidly growing British Columbia, with its own highly distinctive geography, is sometimes singled out as the Far West. The term North has various meanings in referring to regions. It can mean that large thinly settled area anywhere in Canada north of the agricultural ecumene; in many places, quite understandably, the North is frequently associated with the Canadian Shield, even its margins are not far from the largest urban centres in Canada. Yukon and Northwest Territories, of course, are included in the North.

Questions for further consideration: Describe the process how Canada was formed. What problems are associated with such different size provinces? How and why does Canada have much regional differences? Interactive Quiz

[1] http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/discovery/viking.html
[2] http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/hrtg/index_e.html
[3] http://www.ccbn-nbc.gc.ca/
[4] http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle/
[5] http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/elemsoc/g4u22ess.html
[6] http://www.collectionscanada.ca/2/18/h18-2000-e.html
[7] http://www.city.ottawa.on.ca/
[8] http://www.sverdrup2000.org/welcome.htm
[9] http://www.sverdrup2000.org/nunavut.htm
[10] http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/foreign_policy/commonwealth/menu-en.asp
[11] http://www.unac.org/en/index.asp
[12] http://www.nato.int
[13] http://www.gg.ca/govgen_e.asp