History and Culture
In the year of Alice Munro’s birth many power shifts had taken place. Governments were coming under the influence and direction of new people. New premiers in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island take over for the old ones in the spring and summer months of 1931. Most importantly the Statue of Westminster came into effect, which was the official legislative equality between the self-governing areas of the British Empire and the United Kingdom. It marked the independence of the countries that were involved which included Canada. Canada is then granted full independence in national and international affairs (Wikipedia. “Canada 1931)
In 1937, the Spanish Civil War begins, which was a conflict that involved two main political groups in Spain. The Second Spanish Republic fought with nationalistic right wing group and nearly 1135 Canadian soldiers fought for the Republic side (Wikipedia, “Canada 1937”) In 1939, the Canadian army officially joined WWII and declared war on Germany on September 10 and three months later the first division lands in Scotland. Many Canadians went in and were the strongest support of Britain in this war (Wikipedia. “Canada 1939”) After a year of fighting, Canada remains one of the small numbers of forces that are defending Britain and June 10, 1940 they declare war on Italy (Wikipedia. “Canada 1940”). After the war was over, the Canadians prospered industrially and played a role in all decisions and groups that were established after the war. The progress that the country made during and after the WWII gave the Canadians a new sense of pride and nationalism. The war showed Canada that they could too be part of the world’s top nations and has become more mature. Canadian officials realized they need to form political circles and become more active in cultural life (Donaghy, sec. Introduction).
The Canadian culture has been heavily influenced by the other cultures, especially those of Britain and France, but in more recent years has transformed into a more modern era and follows American culture. Mostly around and after WWII did the Canadian culture worry that there uniqueness as a country was being overshadowed by the mass amounts of American people migrating to live in Canada. Canada established laws and institutions to save the culture which include the CBC, the National Film Board of Canada, and the CRTC. The culture is based largely on the importance of the sporting events that take place in their country. Lacrosse, ice hockey, and curling are among the most important (Wikipedia. “Canadian Culture”).
In May of 1979, one of the biggest political events in Canada’s history took place. The election took place in front of 18,000 people which put the Liberal Party and Pierre Trudeau against the up and coming Progressive Conservatives’ leader Joe Clark. The Progressive Conservative were encouraging change and Trudeau, who was the current Prime Minister at the time, put together a rally and Maple Leaf Gardens in order to earn some support back from the people. The Progressives won the election, but two months later mishandled the budget and in a snap election lost to the Liberal Party and Trudeau. (Stratas. “Pierre Trudeau”).
In the second half of the 20th century, the province of Quebec, which was a French speaking province, felt that its rights were unequal to the rights of the American speaking provinces. The movement forced the Canadian parliament to make the French speaking provinces equal to the English speaking provinces throughout the federal government (Wikipedia. “Quebec”). Ontario, to this day, is the most industrialized, urbanized, and populated province in Canada and half of its population speaks English (Hallie and Trovato 246).
A big part of Canada’s culture is the fact that it is a very multicultural country. Ethnicity plays a big part in Canadian lifestyle. Canada can in fact be compared very much to the United States in the fact that both countries have a similar culture and are both very ethnically diverse. Ethnic groups seem to migrate in Canada based on age, sex, education, income, and occupation (Hallie and Trovato 246). The multiculturalism in Canada has had its affects on the country: culturally, socially, and psychologically. Ethnic groups stay in once place based on favorable conditions such as: education, working opportunities, housing and many others. For example, many Italians live in the Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver areas and make up about three percent of the population (Hallie and Travoto 248). But many of the contemporary Canadian writers have agreed that Canada has no unified culture and is “a nation of many loyalties” (Blackwell, sec. “Finding One’s Way in Literature”).
Some of the most important characteristics of Canadian literature lies into two categories, that which is written in French and is highly cultural, and that which is written in English and can be compared more to British Literature. Three of the main characteristics that can be found in most Canadian literature are nature, frontier life, and Canada’s position in the world. For many, many years, Canadian literature has even been questioned to whether or not it exists. (Wikipedia. “Canadian Culture”). Much of Canadian literature is dominated by the strengths and weaknesses of life in Canada. (1911 Encyclopedia, sec. Literature). Many professors and critics around the world argue that there is nothing distinctive about the way that Canadians write (Wikipedia. “Canadian Culture”). Much of Canadian literature is based off the much older and well known writing characteristics of its parent country England, but to say that Canadians can’t write isn’t the case. It has an originality and innocence of its own which is marked by Canada’s “wholesomeness, ideals, and a land limitless to its potentialities” (1911 Ecyclopdeia, sec. Literature). Most critics and scholars divide the literature by provinces and into other sub categories. It seems that many writers use humor to avoid talking about difficult situations and sensitive subjects. Many of the characters that are present in Canadian literature are underdog heroes, if there is even a hero at all. It takes a character that has experienced something that is relatively small and insignificant and helped them to achieve something that is bigger by comparison. Munro has been considered one of the top internationally known writers for Canada. (Wikipedia. “Canadian Literature).
Music has been one of the most influential of the arts as it has been the only one that, for the most part, has remained the same. Music has played a very important role in preserving the culture. French-Canadian music is based mostly on tone and sound and has a representative theme. This type of music is performed mostly for entertainment and is present at social events and in the home. The immigrants from the British Isles brought in their own form of music that usually included the fiddle and originated from countries such as Scotland and Ireland. The Ukrainian and Baltic people also have their influence in Canadian music as they brought in its own unique style that is used in church groups and music clubs. (Kusters, sec. Culture).
Canada 1931. 30 Nov. 2005. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Nov. 2005.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_in_Canada>.
This site shows what happened in 1931 ranging for births, deaths, Arts and Expression and critical events that took place in Canada in this specific year. It also gives hyperlinks to other parts of the encyclopedia that relate to this topic.
Canada 1937. 30 Nov. 2005. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Nov. 2005.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_in_Canada>.
Just like the above link, it shows all of the imporant information that took place during this year. It also gives hyperlinks to other related topics within the encyclopedia and links to other sites via the internet.
Canada 1939. 30 Nov. 2005. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Nov. 2005.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_in_Canada>.
The year 1939 is similar to the information above. It is just specific events that took place, births, deaths, and important imformation pertaining to arts and leisure.
Canada 1940. 30. Nov. 2005. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Nov. 2005.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_in_Canada>.
The information found is also similar to the ones above. It again lists special events politically and nationally, births, deaths, and art and leisure. There are also hyperlinks to other informative places in the encyclopedia and to other internet sources outside of Wikipedia.
Canadian Culture. 30. Nov. 2005. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Nov.
2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_culture>.
This portion of the encyclopedia gives information off in support of Canadian culture and the reasons why it is different from the United States, England, and France, but it also gives reasons why it is very similar to that of the United States. It makes a point of explaining the significance of Canada being very multicultural and that alone being one of its strengths. It also gives hyperlinks to other parts of the article that is significant to the Canadian culture. I found this site very useful and helpful with information, but also know that anyone can contribute to its content, so all information may not be credible.
Canadian Literature. 30. Nov. 2005. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Nov.
2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_culture>.
This is a link off of the Canadian Culture portion from above. It gives the importance of Canadian literature and what makes it different and unique from anyone else's literature. As this has been explained, Canada has always wanted to prove that it is different from its parent countries (England and France) and its neighboring country (The United States). This specific part shows what characteristics are present in Canadian literature that might distinguish it from these three countries. Again, I found this portion to be very useful and interesting, but anyone can contribute to Wikipedia, so its credibility might lack in some areas.
Donaghy, Greg. “Introduction: Canada and The Early Cold War 1943-1957.”
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Oct. 24 2002.
29 Nov. 2005. <http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/department/history/coldwar_intro-en.asp>.
This is just a short introduction to what Canada was like after the Second World War. It gives a brief overview of how Canada prospered after WWII and what advances it economy, society, and culture made during this time. The country took pride in the accomplishments it made during this era and this site lists all of the factors that the war had on the country. It's a valuable sight because it is from the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is a government sight based through Canada.
Halli, S.S., and Frank Trovato. “Ethnicity and Migration in Canada.”
International Migration Review. 17.2 (1983). JSTOR. The
University of Western Ontario. 29 Nov. 2005. (245-267).
<http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0197-
9183%28198322%2917%3A2%3C245%3AEAMIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-
M>.
This article was mostly just based on the different cultures that existed in Canada and what their migrating habits were like. It gave a pretty solid description of what nationalities lived where. There were tid bits of information you could take out of it to prove the multiculturalism that exists in the country, but it more of how the groups function in the different parts of the country and what life would be like if they were to move. It started back with the early provinces and their migrating habits and then gave information in percents based on what nationality lived in which province and why they lived there.
Kusters, Rob. “Culture.” Pacific Island Travel. 2003. 29 Nov. 2005.
<http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/north_america/canada/aboutdestin/culture.asp>
This site is an informative site made for people looking to visit Canada and what the culture is like etc. It gave solid detail about the importance of multicultuarlism and Canada struggling to break away from its parent countries and The United States in order to find its own identity. It talks about food, the fine arts, music and literature that makes up the Canadian culture.
Literature. 1911 Encyclopedia. 2004. 30 Nov. 2005.
<http://56.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CA/CANADA.htm>.
This online encyclopedia basically just gave a lot of information that I had already read from other places. But there was a lot to it and it was in depth. The sight was broken up into religion, economy, and many other sub categories that could be useful in research. There was a lot of interesting information in this particular section that wasn't in anything else that I had read. All the information was easy to find and easy to understand.
Quebec. 30. Nov. 2005. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Nov.
2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec>.
Like the other Wikipedia links, this one gives information about Quebec and its influence on Canadian culture. There are other hyperlinks to other information in the encyclopedia and hyperlinks to other sources throughout the internet.
Stratas, William. “Pierre Trudeau.” Historic Moments in Canadian
Politics. 1996. 29. Nov. 2005. <http://www.planetcast.com/historic-moments>.
This site gives us a picture gallery along with journalism to go along with it. It is the most historic moments politically in Canda. It focuses the most on the 1979 election, in which a new type of goverment was looking to take over Canada and start something new. It turned out to be different than what people expected. It is one of the biggest political rallies in the history of Canada. The information is short but detailed. It gives a lot of facts and reactions to the specific moment.