The virtual "monopolization" of an entire continent by the States occurs not without the inadvertent connivance of Canadians. While America constantly presents itself, persistently offering the world to love its polished-to-impossible-perfection face, Canada is trying to find its own face. When a Canadian is asked who he is, he will most likely answer "not an American." But a negative definition does not bring clarity to the restless Canadian soul. They say there is no other country whose citizens are so preoccupied with trying to understand or find themselves, searching for what in English is called "identity" and is relatively correctly translated into Russian as "national identity." A cohesive Canadian myth has yet to be created, and the expression "Canadian people" still sounds somewhat strange.
"But they do live somehow, don't they?" you might say. They live, and quite well, opening Offshore Trusts for their children's future, and a few years ago UN experts calculated that Canadians live better than anyone else in the world. The air and water are clean, healthcare is free, if you work you get paid well and regularly, if you lose your job you get financial help... The hippies, remember, had a motto – "just being." And along the way, self-determination...
NATURE
This is what Canada has the most of, more than people, houses, and cars. A quarter of the country is covered in forests – spruce, pine, fir. Forests are gradually being cut down for the needs of the world's largest pulp and paper industry, but they are cut carefully – Canadians are obsessed not only with the idea of identity but also with ecology. The Greenpeace movement was born in Canada. Only seven percent of Canadian land grows anything other than timber, but this patch of former prairies is so fertile and carefully cultivated that Canadians harvest grain for themselves and for sale – the country is considered the world's largest breadbasket. Canada also holds a tenth of the world's fresh water reserves. There are also sufficient quantities of oil and gas. There are fewer people – in some places only three people per square kilometer, and the majority (90% of 29 million) live in the south of the country, crowded onto 12% of Canada's vast territories. What can you do, the climate...
CLIMATE
Canada has four distinct seasons. In winter, for example, snow, which frightens homebodies from Arizona and New Mexico who occasionally venture into the neighboring country. In summer – heat. Not everywhere, though. The warmest climate is in the provinces along the borders with the United States, the warmest place in summer is Manitoba, favored by Ukrainians, southern British Columbia, and Ontario. Natural zones in Canada seem shifted south. The climate of Montreal, located at the latitude of Simferopol, is only slightly milder than in Moscow, while at the latitude of Moscow in eastern Canada it is already tundra. The mildest climate (if we talk about cities) is in Vancouver and St. John's, the harshest winter frosts are in Yellowknife, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Whitehorse.
GEOGRAPHY
"Touching three great oceans, it lies, spreading its cities, covered with a grid of meridians, invincible, wide, proud..." That country, about which these poems were written, no longer exists, so the poems could be given to Canada, especially since everything fits, even about the oceans. There are indeed three around it: the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific. Canada has only one neighbor – the USA, and the border with it is the longest undefended border in the world. Canada's geographical division is as follows: Atlantic provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland; central Canada – Quebec and Ontario; prairie provinces – Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia; northern Canada – Yukon and Northwest Territories.
The country has six time zones, the maximum difference between them is five and a half hours. The capital Ottawa is located in the north of Ontario province. Most Ukrainian emigrants of the so-called "first" and "second" waves chose to settle in Ontario or the "prairie provinces."
HISTORY
Canada's key problems are transformed key facts of the country's history. Canada was discovered by the Briton John Cabot (under the pseudonym of northeastern China). Poorly understanding where he had ended up, the Briton sailed on, but the second discoverer of Canada – Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, reached as far as the upper reaches of the St. Lawrence River. Other French followed him, pushing aside the indigenous people – Indians and Eskimos. They founded Quebec and named the country New France.
The French lived in Canada until 1759, when a fierce struggle for supremacy on the North American continent broke out between England and France, known as the Seven Years' War. In 1759, near Quebec, the French lost the decisive battle to the English and were forced to cede the lands. The French greatly lamented the loss and tried to defend themselves and their accustomed way of life from the English-speaking victors. This led to the adoption of the "Quebec Act" in 1774, which guaranteed French settlers official recognition of French civil laws and religious freedoms.
Meanwhile, not all English and Scots were fond of life in the neighboring, still-forming States, and some of them came to eastern Canada, forming Upper (English) Canada. In 1848, Upper Canada united with Lower (French) Canada, and the country gradually began to bring other regions under its jurisdiction. In 1867, the territories united at that time became known as the Canadian Dominion. The country's last territorial acquisition dates to 1949, when Newfoundland, which had remained an English colony the longest, declared itself the tenth province of Canada.
THE QUEEN AND HER SUBJECTS
Canada's political system is a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain delegates her powers to the Governor General of the country. In general, this is all a formality, but if after three years of permanent residence in Canada you wish to become a citizen, you will have to take a solemn oath of allegiance to the Queen and her heirs.
In reality, the country is governed by a parliament consisting of the House of Commons and the Senate. The House of Commons includes the Prime Minister, members of his government, and representatives of opposition parties. Ministers are members of parliament and participate in the development of various social programs, including those in the field of immigration. The government operates on three levels: federal, provincial, and municipal; accordingly, the country has a three-tier tax system. Federal tax rates are uniform across the country.
ANGLOPHONES AND FRANCOPHONES
For a quarter of Canada's residents, French is their native language, for 62% – English. Another 13% name one of the following languages as their native: Italian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Russian, Greek, Farsi, German, Dutch, Spanish. Yes, there is also Iroquoian. There are two official languages – English and French; in theory, a true Canadian should be able to communicate in either. In practice, in Quebec (except Montreal), it will be difficult (or rather, simply impossible) for you to communicate with locals in English, and somewhere in Nova Scotia they won't be able to answer you in French. Canadian English is not quite British English and not entirely American English, although it has many Americanisms, and spelling is closer to British than American. Periodically, attempts are made to "catch" and systematize the main patterns of the "Canadian dialect," but most often such attempts end with the publication of dictionaries with funny texts and funny titles. You'll hear it – you'll understand. That is – you won't understand...
As for French, even there not everything is like in the language's homeland, although the staff of an entire university – Laval University in Quebec City – is tasked with monitoring the purity of Canadian French.
"CANADIAN CHARACTER"
It is defined by comparing Canadians with their closest neighbors. Canadians are less aggressive in communication than Americans, less familiar – their "Englishness" has more actual Anglo-Saxon than American. At the same time, they may seem more indifferent than Americans. Their relationships seem more formal, "detached." Among a certain layer of Americans, there is an opinion of Canadians as police informants, people who will run to the nearest phone to complain if someone overtakes them speeding. Funny, but exactly the same stories, despite the apparent difference in temperament, Canadians tell about Americans. As for society as a whole, it turns out to be highly ideological. You can endlessly criticize the world order in particular, but an attack on "basic values" is unacceptable. Canadians are historical optimists and will not allow anyone to prevent them from being so...
"Zagranitsa" No. 6, 1999.
Information from "Zagranitsa."