Canada Day July 1, 2007 commemorates the day that Canada became a nation 140 years ago.
“Congratulations Canada and Happy Birthday”
On July 1, 1867, the British North American Act united the British colonies of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia into ‘one dominion under the name of Canada.’ These four colonies became Canada’s first four provinces; Lower Canada was renamed Quebec and Upper Canada was renamed Ontario.
The July 1st holiday was known as Dominion Day until October 27, 1982, when an act of parliament established the name Canada Day. The new name symbolized a step away form Canada’s colonial past. The holiday had also sometimes been known as First of July or Confederation Day.
The name Canada derives from the Iroquoian word for “village”, kanata, that French explorers heard used to refer to the area near present-day Quebec City. Today, Canada comprises ten provinces and three territories.
The first inhabitants of Canada were native Indian peoples, primarily the Inuit (Eskimo). The Norse explorer Leif Eriksson probably reached the shores of Canada (Labrador or Nova Scotia) in 1000, but the history of the white man in the country actually began in 1497, when John Cabot, an Italian in the service of Henry VII of England, reached Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
Canada was taken for France in 1534 by Jacques Cartier. The actual settlement of New France, as it was then called, began in 1604 at Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia; in 1608, Quebec was founded. France’s colonization efforts were not very successful, but French explorers by the end of the 17th century had penetrated beyond the Great Lakes to the western prairies and south along the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, the English Hudson’s Bay Company had been established in 1670. Because of the valuable fisheries and fur trade, a conflict developed between the French and English. In 1713, Newfoundland, Hudson Bay and Nova Scotia (Acadia) were lost to England. During the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), England extended its conquest, and the Bristish general James Wolfe won his famous victory over General Louis Montcalm outside Quebec on September 13, 1759. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave England control.
At that time the population of Canada was almost entirely French (not North American Indian as some would want us to believe), but in the next few decades, thousands of British colonists emigrated to Canada from the British Isles and from the American colonies.
In 1849, the right of Canada to self-government was recognized. By the British North American Act of 1867, the Dominion of Canada was created through the confederation of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.
In 1869, Canada purchased from the Hudson’s Bay Company the vast middle west (Rupert’s Land) from which the provinces of Manitoba (1870), Alberta (1905), and Saskatchewan (1905) were later formed. In 1871, British Columbia joined the dominion, and in 1873, Prince Edward Island followed. The country was linked from coast to coast in 1885 by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
There was no such thing as a Canadian citizen until 1947 when the Canadian Citizenship Act was passed.
Today Canada has a population of 33,390,141 and we all consider ourselves Proud2bCanadian
We live together in a total area of 3,855,102 square miles or 9,984,670 square kilometers. We are a mosaic of many ethnic origins starting with the British Isles at 28%, French at 23%, other European at 15%, Indigenous Indian and Inuit at 2%. The ‘others’ category are mostly Asian, African, Arab at 6% and the balance from a mixed background at 26%.
The official languages of Canada are English 59.3% and French 23.2%. Other languages 17.5%.
“There is no greater gift to the unification of Canada than the hospitality and kindness of one Canadian to another”
Diane R. St. John
Happy Canada Day Everyone!