800-year old tradition of ordered liberty, which dates back to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215 in England (also known as the Great Charter of Freedoms
The Constitution of Canada was amended in 1982 to entrench the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canada is the only constitutional monarchy in North America
Canadian institutions uphold a commitment to Peace, Order, and Good Government, a key phrase in Canada's original constitutional document in 1867, the British North America Act
The ancestors of Aboriginal peoples are believed to have migrated from Asia many thousands of years ago
Territorial rights were first guaranteed through the Royal Proclamation of 1763 by King George III, and established the basis for negotiating treaties with the newcomers— treaties that were not always fully respected
From the 1800s until the 1980s, the federal government placed many Aboriginal children in residential schools to educate and assimilate them into mainstream Canadian culture. In 2008, Ottawa formally apologized to the former students.
In the 1970s, the term First Nations began to be used. Today, about half of First Nations people live on reserve land in about 600 communities while the other half live off-reserve, mainly in urban centres
About 65% of the Aboriginal people are First Nations, while 30% are Métis and 4% Inuit.
John Buchan, the 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, was a popular Governor General of Canada (1935-40). Immigrant groups, he said, "should retain their individuality and each make its contribution to the national character." Each could learn "from the other, and ... while they cherish their own special loyalties and traditions, they cherish not less that new loyalty and tradition which springs from their union." (Canadian Club of Halifax, 1937). The 15th Governor General is shown here in Blood (Kainai First Nation) headdress.
Today, there are 18 million Anglophones—people who speak English as a first language—and 7 million Francophones—people who speak French as their first language
One million Francophones live in Ontario, New Brunswick and Manitoba, with a smaller presence in other provinces. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province.
The Acadians are the descendants of French colonists who began settling in what are now the Maritime provinces in 1604
Between 1755 and 1763, during the war between Britain and France, more than two-thirds of the Acadians were deported from their homeland. Despite this ordeal, known as the "Great Upheaval," the Acadians survived and maintained their unique identity.
Quebecers are the people of Quebec, the vast majority French-speaking. Most are descendants of 8,500 French settlers from the 1600s and 1700s and maintain a unique identity, culture and language.
The House of Commons recognized in 2006 that the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada. One million Anglo-Quebecers have a heritage of 250 years and form a vibrant part of the Quebec fabric.
The basic way of life in English-speaking areas was established by hundreds of thousands of English, Welsh, Scottish and Irishsettlers, soldiers and migrants from the 1600s to the 20th century.
Chinese languages are the second most-spoken at home, after English, in two of Canada's biggest cities. In Vancouver, 13% of the population speak Chinese languages at home; in Toronto, the number is 7%.
Olympian Marjorie Turner-Bailey of Nova Scotia is a descendant of black Loyalists, escaped slaves and freed men and women of African origin who in the 1780s fled to Canada from America, where slavery remained legal until 1863
The Huron-Wendat of the Great Lakes region, like the Iroquois, were farmers and hunters. The Cree and Dene of the Northwest were hunter-gatherers. The Sioux were nomadic, following the bison (buffalo) herd. The Inuit lived off Arctic wildlife. West Coast natives preserved fish by drying and smoking
The Vikings from Iceland who colonized Greenland 1,000 years ago also reached Labrador and the island of Newfoundland. The remains of their settlement, l'Anse aux Meadows, are a World Heritage site.
John Cabot, an Italian immigrant to England, was the first to map Canada's Atlantic shore, setting foot on Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island in 1497 and claiming the New Founde Land for England. English settlement did not begin until 1610
Jacques Cartier was the first European to explore the St. Lawrence River and to set eyes on present-day Quebec City and Montreal
Between 1534 and 1542, Jacques Cartier made three voyages across the Atlantic, claiming the land for King Francis I of France. Cartier heard two captured guides speak the Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village." By the 1550s, the name of Canada began appearing on maps.
Count Frontenac refused to surrender Quebec to the English in 1690, saying: "My only reply will be from the mouths of my cannons!"
In 1604, the first European settlement north of Florida was established by French explorers Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain, first on St. Croix Island (in present-day Maine), then at Port-Royal, in Acadia (present-day Nova Scotia). In 1608 Champlain built a fortress at what is now Quebec City.
Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, was a great hero of New France,
winning many victories over the English, from James Bay in the north to
Nevis in the Caribbean, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries
French and the Iroquois made peace in 1701
Outstanding leaders like Jean Talon, Bishop Laval, and Count Frontenac built a French Empire in North America that reached from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1670, King Charles II of England granted the Hudson's Bay Company exclusive trading rights over the watershed draining into Hudson Bay.
The skilled and courageous men who travelled by canoe were called voyageursand coureurs des bois, and formed strong alliances with First Nations.
English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, dating from the early 1600s, eventually became richer and more populous than New France. In the 1700s France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. In 1759, the British defeated the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City — marking the end of France's empire in America. The commanders of both armies, Brigadier James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm, were killed leading their troops in battle.
To better govern the French Roman Catholic majority, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act of 1774. One of the constitutional foundations of Canada, the Quebec Act accommodated the principles of British institutions to the reality of the province. It allowed religious freedom for Catholics and permitted them to hold public office, a practice not then allowed in Britain. The Quebec Act restored French civil law while maintaining British criminal law
In 1776, the thirteen British colonies to the south of Quebec declared independence and formed the United States
More than 40,000 people loyal to the Crown, called "Loyalists," fled the oppression of the American Revolution to settle in Nova Scotia and Quebec.
Joseph Brant led thousands of Loyalist Mohawk Indians into Canada.
About 3,000 black Loyalists, freedmen and slaves, came north seeking a better life. In turn, in 1792, some black Nova Scotians, who were given poor land, moved on to establish Freetown, Sierra Leone (West Africa), a new British colony for freed slaves
Sir Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester), as Governor of Quebec, defended the
rights of the Canadiens, defeated an American military invasion of
Quebec in 1775, and supervised the Loyalist migration to Nova Scotia
and Quebec in 1782-83
The first elected Assembly of Lower Canada, in Quebec City, debates whether to use both French and English, January 21, 1793
The first representative assembly was elected in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1758. Prince Edward Island followed in 1773, New Brunswick in 1785. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (later Ontario), which was mainly Loyalist, Protestant and English-speaking, and Lower Canada (later Quebec), heavily Catholic and French-speaking
The Atlantic colonies and the two Canadas were known collectively as British North America.
Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe was Upper Canada's first Lieutenant Governor and founder of the City of York (now Toronto). Simcoe also made Upper Canada the first province in the British Empire to abolish slavery. In 1793, Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, a Loyalist military officer, became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition. In 1807, the British Parliament prohibited the buying and selling of slaves, and in 1833 abolished slavery throughout the Empire. Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed "the North Star" and settled in Canada via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network.
Mary Ann (Shadd) Carey was an outspoken activist in the movement to abolish slavery in the U.S.A. In 1853 she became the first woman publisher in Canada, helping to found and edit The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper dedicated to anti-slavery, black immigration to
Canada, temperance (urging people to drink less alcohol) and upholding British rule
Canada, temperance (urging people to drink less alcohol) and upholding British rule
The first financial institutions opened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Montreal Stock Exchange opened in 1832
Major General Sir Isaac Brock and Chief Tecumseh. Together, British troops, First Nations and Canadian volunteers defeated an American invasion in 1812-14
After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), the Royal Navy ruled the waves. The British Empire, which included Canada, fought to resist Bonaparte's bid to dominate Europe. This led to American resentment at British interference with their shipping. Believing it would be easy to conquer Canada, the United States launched an invasion in June 1812. The Americans were mistaken. Canadian volunteers and First Nations, including Shawnee led by Chief Tecumseh, supported British soldiers in Canada's defence. In July, Major-General Sir Isaac Brock captured Detroit but was killed while defending against an American attack at Queenston Heights, near Niagara Falls, a battle the Americans lost.
In 1813, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry and 460 soldiers, mostly French Canadiens, turned back 4,000 American invaders at Châteauguay, south of Montreal.
In 1813 the Americans burned Government House and the Parliament Buildings in York (now Toronto).
In retaliation in 1814, Major-General Robert Ross led an expedition from Nova Scotia that burned down the White House and other public buildings in Washington, D.C. Ross died in battle soon afterwards and was buried in Halifax with full military honours.
In 1813, Laura Secord, pioneer wife and mother of five children, made a dangerous 19 mile (30 km) journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon of a planned American attack. Her bravery contributed to victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams. She is recognized as a heroine to this day
The Duke of Wellington sent some of his best soldiers to defend Canada in 1814. He then chose Bytown (Ottawa) as the endpoint of the Rideau Canal, part of a network of forts to prevent the U.S.A. from invading Canada again. Wellington, who defeated Napoleon in 1815, therefore played a direct role in founding the national capital
HMS Shannon, a Royal Navy frigate, leads the captured USS Chesapeake into Halifax harbour, 1813. There were also naval battles on the Great Lakes
By 1814, the American attempt to conquer Canada had failed. The British paid for a costly Canadian defence system, including the Citadels at Halifax and Quebec City, the naval drydock at Halifax and Fort Henry at Kingston—today popular historic sites. The present-day Canada-U.S.A. border is partly an outcome of the War of 1812, which ensured that Canada would remain independent of the United States.
When armed rebellions occurred in 1837–38 in the area outside Montreal and in Toronto, the rebels did not have enough public support to succeed. They were defeated by British troops and Canadian volunteers. A number of rebels were hanged or exiled; some exiles later returned to Canada.
Lord Durham, an English reformer sent to report on the rebellions, recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be merged and given responsible government
Some reformers, including Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché and Sir George-Étienne Cartier, later became Fathers of Confederation, as did a former member of the voluntary government militia in Upper Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald.
Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, a champion of French language rights, became the first head of a responsible government (similar to a prime minister) in Canada in 1849
In 1840, Upper and Lower Canada were united as the Province of Canada.
Reformers such as Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine and Robert Baldwin, in parallel with Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia, worked with British governors toward responsible government
The first British North American colony to attain full responsible government was Nova Scotia in 1847–48. In 1848–49 the governor of United Canada, Lord Elgin, with encouragement from London, introduced responsible government.
The Fathers of Confederation established the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867, the birth of the country that we know today
