Canadian Historical Development - Essay Example

Introduction and history Canadian political arena is one that is comprised of somewhat a blend of different political manifestations of countries like France, UK and US. This can be attributed from the geographical location of the country and its history. The French and British settlers who went into Canadian territory contribute a great deal to the nature of Canadian political landscape. The other issue to look at is that of Canada neighbouring United States. For this reason Canada has seen its politics and laws of the land lean towards the legal developments in the US more so in the liberalisation tendencies and tolerance of certain members of the society e.g. homosexuals among others. The other issue lies in the distributions of natural resources in Canada where they are well distributed throughout the country (Archer and Young 138-214). It is this distribution in many countries not only in Canada that at many times dictate the economic prosperity of regions and the political landscape in those areas. It is important to note that Canadian political landscape has been developing over the years although at a relatively gradual pace for the country to be where it is today. This paper shall seek to highlight issues that affirm the assertion that the Canadian geography and historic development have gone a long way into shaping the country’s current political context. Canadian political history and culture As mentioned above the Canada is one country that has received immense influence on its political landscape from the French, Americans and Britons. For this reason what is practised in Canada is more less a blend of the three to a hug extent. The rights and freedoms of individuals are well guarded by the constitution and so are regional autonomy and the rule of law. The English traditions, French civil law and North American aboriginal government have all been embedded into one item to form the Canadian political culture (Archer and Young 138-214). Another issue to note is the high ranking political officials are supposed to manifest good language skills in both English and French. The government of Canada emphasises its goals to be those of maintaining order, peace and ensuring good governance. Therefore, it can be deduced from the above that the Canadian politics are filled with tolerance and compromise in order to reach certain milestones. As it was earlier mentioned the political landscape being a borrowed one is characterised by the country being a constitutional monarchy whose origin is the traditions of Britain. The other important characteristic is that of having federal system of governance with a parliament. These manifestations in the political arena all work together in harmony under the guidance of well rooted democratic traditions. It is important to note that the Canadian structure of governance was one that was established by the British parliament whereas the federal system of governance came later and was enacted by politicians of Canadian descent. These developments where Canadian politicians begun to take full control of the changes witnessed in their country gained momentum with the advent of the 1st World War (Bickerton and Gagnon 168-395). Canada and resource distribution The natural resources in Canada are distributed in such a way that some regions are adored than others. For this basic reason these disparity extends not only to the economic arena but also to the political one. This distribution is a basis of inequalities that the various regions experience. Canada has ten provinces which comprise three territories of administration. It is these provinces and territories that have a problem in regional inequalities in terms of natural resources. For many years now this is issue has been in the centre of many political debates and to a huge extent has come to shape the politics of the country and these regions. A good example is the fishing industry which is concentrated in the Atlantic side which is quite affected by bad weather during winter (Archer and Young 138-214). This scenario seems to drastically correlate with the unemployment rates that this region experiences during winter seasons. This situation is made worse by the recently enacted quotas by the government that aim at reducing the negative impacts that have resulted from overfishing making the unemployment issue worse than it was years back. Politicians from these regions cannot help it but recent such moves and keep asking for remedies to the winter scenario that renders thousands jobless. The other issue lies in the exploration of oil that has been going on for years in the Atlantic region. This region is taken to be a potential area for oil reserves and a more recent case of offshore oil platform came to prove this as true in Hibernia (Bickerton et al. 46-136). It is in no doubt that this will highly enhance the quick growth of these areas and this shall not escape the eyes of politicians both from within the region and without where some will be asking for localised development in the area while others advocating for equal distribution of oil revenues even to disadvantages divisions or provinces. The Canadian service industry has been also in the limelight as to be one that is growing fast but the issue lies with the regions in which the same is thriving. It is in the big cities that the service sector seems to be thriving. This has left the rural Canada with little options like to rely on natural resources utilisation. Quebec has been one such region where service industry has grown tremendously and for this reason politics have been playing key role in trying to have this growth redistributed. The other sector important to look into is that of agriculture. Agriculture in Canada is also a rather selective sector in terms of regions. Prairies in the West dominate this sector a great deal. Agriculture is a highly volatile area to deal in as market prices for the products as well as inputs keep fluctuating time and again leading to swings between prosperity and decline (Intergovernmental Affairs Canada 2009). A case in point is that of dropping prices of grains. This issue is known to have caused ripples within the political divide as politicians as well as members of the public cried to the government to cushion farmers for they stood to lose a great deal making them be unable to continue with the venture. This is just but an example since the agricultural sector has been a subject that has time and again attracted national and international political debate. These facts prove that regional inequalities in terms of resource distribution geographically make some regions contribute more than others to the country’s GDP. The other issue with geographical characteristics is the population distribution where more people seem to be in Ontario and Quebec. These regions attract more attention when political decisions are being made as they also in a huge way determine the voting pattern (Bickerton and Gagnon 168-395). This has been the trend for decades and one whose end is not within reach at the moment. So far it is evident that regions have been playing a key role in shaping the current political context in Canada. Sense of regionalism Regionalism is known to incline people’s way of doing things in a certain way based on perceptions that are deeply entrenched in the people. Canada has been one country where regionalism has been a determinant factor in many aspects of social, political and economic spheres. Under the above consideration Canada has the following regions: Ontario, Quebec, The West and the Atlantic region. These regions arose as a result of the various economic and political manifestations that each had as well as their potentials in regards to influencing policy formulation (Intergovernmental Affairs Canada 2009). The distribution of natural resources as mentioned earlier is also a key factor in cropping up of regionalism which I turn has led to regional inequalities. Less industrialised regions depend heavily in the more advanced ones in the same respect which in turn have a better market for their goods. The industries located in resource intensive areas usually reinvest insufficiently in the regions of operation leaving the areas to suffer slowly from underdevelopment. The political class i.e. the senate and the electoral system is blamed for failure to break regionalism tendencies in the population while another share of blame is directed toward federalism that is seen to divide the country into regions with different potentials. Conclusion Canada is one country that has a rich historical background that is a blend of three cultures i.e. US, UK and French. These cultures have affected the political landscape of the country a great deal. In this respect Canada has found itself internal problems as well as prosperity owing this to the systems of governance adopted. Regional inequalities have been seen to play a key role in shaping the direction that politics is taking in Canada. These inequalities are based in a huge way on resource distribution which translates into wealth creation and distribution in the whole country. Failure to have a balance in this has resulted to some areas feeling neglected than others especially in the cases of unemployment rates. All these issues have come to shed some light that the current political context of Canada has been shaped by its geography as well as historical development. Works cited Archer, Keith and Young, Lisa. Regionalism and Party Politics in Canada. Oxford University Press, 2002. 138-214. Bickerton, James and Gagnon Alain-G. Canadian Politics. 5th edn. University of Toronto Press, 2009. 168 – 395. Bickerton, James et al. Freedom, Equality, Community: The Political Philosophy of Six Influential Canadians. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2006. 46 - 136. Intergovernmental Affairs Canada. Difference between Canadian Provinces and Territories. Queen's Printer for Canada. 2009. Accessed July 21 2010. . Read More