Thomas, David M.. Canada and the United States: differences that count. Third ed. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2008.
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. Overtime, 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. In other words,
There are many parallel between the United States of America and Canada. For instance they were both former possessions of the British crown, they speak mostly English, and they both had to deal with Native Americans. But one important difference is how they treated their native population during Western expansion. The Americans treated the Natives Americans like they were below them. The made treaties with the natives only to ultimately break them, the engaged in open war with the natives, and generally didn’t respect them. While, in direct contrast, the Canadians honored treaties, generally did not engage in war with the natives, and respected them as individuals. According to Keith Walden, who is a history professor at Trent University, a major catalyst for this was the North West Mounted Police, which are now known as the Royal Canadian Mountain Police.
During the early 1900’s, Canada’s biggest economic partner was Britain. Soon, United States took their place and created a long-lasting relationship with Canada. Canada and the United States have strengthened their relationship as economic partners throughout the 20th century in terms of American investment, the Auto Pact, as well as both North American Trade Agreements.
...ers, neighbours, allies and friends. This is a relationship that needs to continue for Canada to survive in the world today. As a North American nation, Canada and the United States of America strive to coexist on the same continent. They are the world’s most lucrative trading partners and close defence allies who share common goals and values. One country is larger than the other by an incredible greatness, but both countries depend on one another to see that the greater North America may flourish as a major world contender. Canada needs to deepen and strengthen its enterprise with its American compatriots and the issues of defence are vital to encouraging common goals and ventures. By working together Canada and America can ensure the gates that divide are never closed and that their partnership remains both vital and necessary to the advancement of North America.
Newman, Garfield et al. Canada A Nation Unfolding. Toronto: Mc Graw – Hill Ryerson Limited, 2000.
Many people might have a diverse opinion on the extend of the American cultural influence on Canada, but the truth is, these two countries share a long common border, they use frequently the same language, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music and collaborate on other numerous levels, including economic and political activity. In this paper, I would like to show the extent of the influence on Canadian popular culture that comes from the United States. For my analysis I have chosen four segments of popular culture: television, printed media, music and films. In these are the main sectors where we can see the biggest evidence of this phenomenon. In the first part I would like to shortly introduce the history of this issue. The second part is the analysis of the four sectors.
The first thing we should examine is what exactly is meant by “strong national identity”. A very good example of strong national identity is the U.S.. I doubt there is a man on this planet who is not familiar with the U.S.. People immediately recognize their flag, and most people can tell you quite a bit about them. The same is true of Canada, and what do they know of Canada? In 1995 U.S. President Bill Clinton stated his view of Canada in a speech where he declared, “Canada has shown the world how to balance freedom with compassion and tradition with innovation, in your efforts to provide health care to all your citizens, to treat senior citizens with the dignity and respect they deserve...”(Canada Today 9). We were also rated first in the UN’s 1992 “Human Development Index” (9).
...nguage, and religion all make up Canada’s human face, but also front how the cultural accommodation will continue with the risk of losing Canada’s main traditions. Faultlines again come into perspective within demographic issues, especially with newcomers/old-timers, aboriginal population expansions, and French/English language. The core/periphery model is also represented. The end of the chapter places a focus on Canada’s economic face as well, dealing with stresses inside the global economy as well as its strong dependency on the U.S markets (Bone, 169) especially with the stimulating global recession. Canada’s economic structure leans on the relative share of activity in the primary (natural resource extraction), secondary (raw material assembly), tertiary (sale/exchange of goods and services), and quaternary (decision-making) sectors of the economy (Bone, 166).
The United States is Canada's largest trading partner and is the largest market for Canadian goods. The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (1989) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (1994) have both been crucial to increasing market opportunities for Canadian exporters in the U.S.