International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Canada is the world's second-largest country by land area, occupying most of the northern part of North America between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and extending north to the Arctic Ocean. Originally founded as a union of British and former French colonies, Canada became a dominion in 1867 and gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1982. It is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy comprised of ten provinces and three territories. An officially bilingual nation, nearly 60 percent of the population have English as a mother tongue, while 23 percent have French. Canada adopted an official policy of multiculturalism in 1988, and its population of more than 34 million people is composed of no fewer than 34 ethnic groups that number at least 100,000 people. Canada is a technologically advanced and industrialized nation whose diversified economy is heavily reliant on trade with the United States, with which it shares land borders to the south and northwest. Canada's communications sector has been particularized by three factors: the country's close and often ambivalent relationship to the United States, its policy of official bilingualism, and its avowed dedication to the principle of multiculturalism. Of these differences, it is Canada's bilingual status that most clearly separates it from the American model (→ United States of America: Media System ... log in or subscribe to read full text