Who We Are

IdentityA Strong and Free Country

Canadian institutions are committed to Peace, Order, and Good Government. The phrase comes from the country’s original constitutional document of 1867, the British North America Act. Canadians’ belief in fair play, hard work, enterprise and ordered liberty built a prosperous society in rugged country, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific and up to the Arctic Circle — which is why poets and songwriters call Canada the “Great Dominion.”

First PeoplesAboriginal Peoples

The ancestors of Aboriginal peoples are thought to have come from Asia many thousands of years ago, and they were long settled here before the first European explorers reached North America. The many vibrant First Nations cultures grew out of religious beliefs about their ties to the Creator, to the natural environment and to one another.

Aboriginal and treaty rights are written into the Canadian Constitution. The first guarantee of territorial rights came from King George III in the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which laid the basis on which treaties with the newcomers would be negotiated — though those treaties were not always fully honoured.

Between the 1800s and the 1980s Ottawa sent many Aboriginal children to residential schools, meant to educate them and assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream. Poorly funded, the schools inflicted hardship: some students were physically abused, and Aboriginal languages and cultural practices were largely forbidden. Ottawa issued a formal apology to the former students in 2008. Aboriginal peoples today enjoy renewed pride and confidence, with notable achievements in the arts, business, agriculture and the environment.

Three GroupsInuit and Métis

Inuit means “the people” in Inuktitut. Living in small, scattered communities throughout the Arctic, the Inuit have drawn on their knowledge of land, sea and wildlife to cope with one of the harshest environments on earth.

The Métis are a distinct people whose ancestry is both Aboriginal and European. Most live in the Prairie provinces; their backgrounds are French- and English-speaking alike, and they speak a dialect of their own, Michif.

John Buchan, the 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, a popular Governor General (1935–40), is remembered for his view of immigration. Speaking in Halifax in 1937, he argued that immigrant groups ought to keep their individuality and each contribute to the national character — learning from one another while holding on to their own loyalties and traditions and the new, shared loyalty that grows from their union.

Official LanguagesEnglish and French

Today’s Canadian society grows largely out of the English-speaking and French-speaking Christian civilizations that settlers brought from Europe. English and French are the country’s official languages, and by law the federal government must deliver its services in both across Canada.

The Acadians descend from French colonists who began settling in today’s Maritime provinces in 1604. During the war between Britain and France, between 1755 and 1763, over two-thirds of them were expelled from their homeland — the ordeal remembered as the “Great Upheaval.” They survived it with their identity intact, and Acadian culture is today a lively, flourishing part of French-speaking Canada.

Quebecers, the people of Quebec, are overwhelmingly French-speaking; most descend from the 8,500 French settlers of the 1600s and 1700s and keep a distinct identity, culture and language. In 2006 the House of Commons recognized the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. Quebec’s one million Anglo-Quebecers, with a heritage of 250 years, are a vibrant part of the province’s fabric.

NewcomersBecoming Canadian

Some immigrants come to Canada from places where they lived through warfare or conflict, but that is no warrant for bringing violent, extreme or hateful prejudices with them. Newcomers becoming Canadian are expected to take on democratic principles, the rule of law among them.

Settlers, soldiers and migrants in their hundreds of thousands — English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish — arrived from the 1600s to the 20th century and set the everyday way of life in English-speaking Canada. Generations of pioneers of British origin, along with other groups, invested and endured hardship laying the country’s foundations, which is why Anglophones are generally called English Canadians.

MulticulturalismDiversity in Canada

Most Canadians are Canadian-born, and have been since the 1800s. Canada is nonetheless often called a land of immigrants: millions of newcomers across the past 200 years have helped build and defend the Canadian way of life. Its largest ethnic groups are the Aboriginal, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Irish, Italian, Scandinavian, Scottish, South Asian and Ukrainian.

Asia has been the main source of immigrants since the 1970s. Many Canadian households speak a non-official language at home: in two of the biggest cities Chinese languages rank second at home behind English — spoken by 13% in Vancouver and 7% in Toronto.

By a wide margin, Canadians identify as Christians, Catholic being the largest affiliation, followed by the various Protestant churches. Growing too are the numbers of Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and members of other religions, along with those who report “no religion.” The state has traditionally worked with faith communities on schools and health care, on refugee resettlement, to promote harmony, mutual respect and social welfare, and to uphold freedom of conscience, religious freedom and religious expression.

Canada’s diversity takes in gay and lesbian Canadians, fully protected and treated equally under the law, civil marriage included. Sharing a common Canadian identity, these diverse groups together make up today’s multicultural society.

DatesKey Dates at a Glance