Canada: Difference between revisions

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* [[The British Empire]] / [[The Commonwealth]]: Canada was part of the Empire and is part of the Commonwealth. It's one of the Commonwealth's biggest boosters, not that that's saying much.

* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: Speaking both English and French helps you ''tremendously'' in Canada. Quebecois can't complain that you're one of the ''maudit Anglos'', the Anglo-Canadians can't complain that you're one of the stuck-up Quebecers, and a lot more government jobs are open for bilingual people. This is also the reason why most successful Prime Ministers were all from the "Laurentian Elite", i.e. people from the Ottawa to Montreal region - they grew up bilingual.

* [[The Federation]]: Canada is a fairly centralized example of one - crime, for example, is entirely controlled by the federal authorities, not the provinces (though the provinces may also have their own police service - the Sureté de Québec is probably the most famous). This is due to the Constitution Act of 1867 laying out a very wide set of powers the federal government explicitly has. Another good example is marriage - most family law is provincial law ''but'' marriage regulation is a federal power. It's also the reason Canada became the ~~first~~ country in the ~~New World to~~ allow same-sex marriages on a national scale in 2005 - because regulating marriage was a federal power, all it took was three readings in the House of Commons, three readings in the Senate and Governor (well, Royal, but it's ''de facto'' Governor) Assent, rather than the long-term state-by-state approval process seen in the US.

* [[The Federation]]: Canada is a fairly centralized example of one - crime prevention, for example, is entirely controlled by the federal authorities, not the provinces (though the provinces may also have their own police service - the Sureté de Québec is probably the most famous). This is due to the Constitution Act of 1867 laying out a very wide set of powers the federal government explicitly has. Another good example is marriage - most family law is provincial law, ''but'' marriage regulation is a federal power. It's also the reason Canada became the fourth country in the worldto allow same-sex marriages on a national scale in 2005 - because regulating marriage was a federal power, all it took was three readings in the House of Commons, three readings in the Senate and Governor (well, Royal, but it's ''de facto'' Governor) Assent, rather than the long-term state-by-state approval process seen in the US.

* [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|Canadians Love Curling]]: Curling originated from Scotland, yet it's Canada that dominates curling in international competitions.

* [[Good Bad Translation]]: According to legend, when Jacques Cartier asked the Huron-Iroquois people where he was, they replied that they were taking him to "kanata", meaning "the village". He interpreted it as "we are in the nation of Kanata". So he wrote "Canada" on all the maps.