Canadian Culture: What on Earth is it? Douglas Fleming, PhD Faculty of Education

1. Canadian Culture: What on Earth is it? Douglas Fleming, PhD Faculty of Education

3. Canadian Coat of Arms What do you notice on this official symbol? • British and French elements; • A Mari usque ad Mare: “from sea to sea;" • Desiderantes Meliorem Patriam: “desiring a better country;" • Monarchy (crown and roses); • Red and white maple leaves. Video: Canadian, Please (gunnarolla & Julia Bentley: 2:29 min); What do you notice on this video? • Asian and English Canadians; • Outdoors/water; • Unofficial; • Playful look at national symbols, such as mounted police, beavers, geese, popular singers, etc.; • Pokes fun at Americans (USA).

4. First: What is Culture? • Culture is a central concept in anthropology used to distinguish particular groups of people; • Edward Tylor (1871) defined culture as comprising the capabilities and habits that one gains by being a member of a particular society;   • Franz Boas (1940) argued that differences in culture are not biologically or racially-based, but due to processes of social learning centered on systems of symbols and common beliefs; • Culture is something passed down and modified through succeeding generations. • How “real” is a singular national culture? • Should we be talking about culture(s)?

5. Second: What specifically is Canadian culture? • Difficult to define; • Canada is highly diverse in terms of geography and population demographics;   • Canada is a nation state, not representative of a race or an ethnicity. Officially, a bilingual and multicultural nation state; • A new country: only 150 years old;  • ”Discovered” by Cartier (1534); • However, First Nation culture(s) stretch back at least hundreds of thousands of years;

6. Geography and Climate • 9,970,610 square km.; • 3 oceans; • 6 time zones; • extreme climate variation; • arctic; boreal forests, mountains, lowlands, semi-desert, rain forest; • abundance of fresh water.

7. Population • 36 million total; • 68% close to the USA border; • ageing population (pr (25% seniors by 2036); • 3.5 people/square km.; • 80% live in cities; • 245 people/square km. in urban centers.

8. Political System • federal state established in 1867; • full independence in 1938; • constitution repatriated in 1982; • multi-party constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy; • complex multi-tiered political organization; • federal, provincial, territorial, native, regional and municipal • problematic history: First Nation genocide, imperial legacies, immigration, settlement, war, racialization, and struggles over the expansion of labour, gender and civic rights; • women gained the right to vote only in 1916; • however, representative government long established (1758; Halifax).

9. Economic System • 15th-largest economy in the world; • 1.7% share of world distributed worth (0.5% of world population); • dominance of primary, resource-based industries (58% of exports); • 1.5% current inflation rate; • 7% current unemployment rate; • 75% of workers employed in service sector; • 30% of workers belong to trade unions; • mixture of private and public sectors; • extensive social welfare system.

10. First languages and Immigration • 59% Anglophone; • 22% Francophone; • 19% Allophone; • projected to increase to 32% by 2031; • 21% foreign born (highest in the G8 industrialized nations); • current origins of immigrants: • Asia (60%); • Europe (14%); • Africa (12.5%); • Latin-America (12%); • U.S.A. (4%); • significant change since immigration reforms ended discrimination based on ethnicity and race (1967).

11. Race and ethnicity • 42% have more than one origin; • 19% self-identify as being part of a visible minority; • South Asians, Chinese, Blacks, Filipinos, Latin Americans, Arabs, Southeast Asians, West Asians, Koreans and Japanese; • 200 ethnic origins reported; • 13 ethnicities surpass the 1-million mark; • 4.5% first nations; • 3% Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese); • First Nations the fastest growing demographic.

12. Religion • 66% Christian • 3.2% Moslem • 1.5% Hindu • 1.4% Sikh • 1.1% Buddhist • 1.0% Jewish • 23.9% no religious affiliation

13. Social class • median family income $76,500/year; • median income has increased 5.5% over the last 33 years; • however, income disparity has increased; the richest income group (fifth quintile) now controls 39.2% of total national income; • high household debt-to-income ratio; • some groups experience greater levels of poverty than others: • People aged 20 to 24 years have seen a 41% decline in purchasing power since 1976; • 5.8 % average annual increase in house prices (far worse in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver); • 60% of First Nations children live in poverty.

14. Gender, family organization and sexuality • 54% of the total population are women • women life expectancy: 84 • men life expectancy: 80 • 60% of women have paid employment • 18% of couples live common-law • 16% of children have common-law parents • 19% of families are single parent • 44% of couples do not have children • 5% of children live in multi-generational households • women more likely than men to work part-time • women earn 85% that of men (in terms of hourly wages) • approximately 2% of Canadians self-identify as being LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) • there are 64,575 same-sex couples in Canada, of which 33% were legally married.

15. So, defining Canadian culture is highly problematic; • Long-standing economic and political dominance of England and the United States; • Tensions between dominant Anglo-American/Francophone based definitions of culture and those that represent the growing diversity of daily life in Canada; • It could be said that Canada is struggling between concepts of culture that are based on • jus sanguinis (blood) and • jus soli (soil); • It could be argued that dominant groups in all nation-states attempt to perpetuate myths of singular national cultures (Anderson, 1963; Marshall, 1950) through the use of “banal symbolism” (Billig, 1995).

16. Some Representations of Canadian Culture: • http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/discover/section-11.asp • http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1444070813547 • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_symbols_of_Canada Different Voices: • Video: You Don’t Say: Canadian Culture (from 5:21-9:23: 4:02 min) •  Video: Canadian Foods: Gunnarolla (1:18 min) •  Video: Growing Up White Gunnarolla (11:41 min)

17. Discussion Questions: • Before you left Yunnan and Gansu, what were your conceptions of Canada and Canadian culture(s)? • Did that change once you left Beijing? • Do you expect to find a culture that is similar to that of the USA? The UK? Other countries? Or do you think it will be unique? • Is a national culture “real”? • What makes up a culture? Is food important? • On the basis of the videos, do you think Canadian food is based on British, American, Indian or other traditions? • What is Chinese culture? • During your stay with us, how do you think Chinese culture(s) will compare to Canadian culture(s)?