Canada: Politics, Culture, and History

Vocabulary flashcards covering contemporary Canadian politics, geography, culture, Indigenous relations, and constitutional history from pre-colonial settlement to the 1982 Constitution Act.

Mary May Simon

The Inuk Governor General who represents the British monarch (Canada's Head of State) in Canada's constitutional monarchy.

Mark Carney

The official identified in the lecture notes as Canada's Prime Minister and Head of Government.

Canadian Federal System

The political structure of Canada, consisting of 10 co-sovereign provinces with law-making authority and 3 territories.

Canadian Economy

An economic structure primarily driven by services and natural resources.

Canadian Index of Well-Being Values

A set of core societal values in Canada that includes democracy, peace/non-violence, politeness, fairness, diversity/inclusion, and economic stability.

Canadian Population Distribution

A demographic concentration where most of the population lives within 100 km of the southern border, influenced by climate, freshwater access, settlement history, and economic opportunities with the United States.

Kanata

The Huron-Iroquois (Wendat/Haudenosaunee) word meaning "village," which serves as the linguistic origin of the name Canada.

John Cabot

The explorer who claimed land in North America for Spain and Portugal in 1497, when England was not yet interested in North American territorial expansion.

Jacques Cartier

A French explorer seeking a passage to Asia who claimed the shores of the Saint Lawrence River for France in 1534 and named the first settlement Canada.

Seven Years War (1763)

A global conflict lost by the French that established Great Britain as the dominant European power in North America and placed Canadian colonies under British rule.

Royal Proclamation of 1763

A British policy curbing settler encroachment on Native lands, dictating that land belonged to Indigenous peoples until ceded by treaty and that only the Crown could purchase it.

North America Act (1867)

An act taking effect on July 1, 1867, unifying Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec into the Dominion of Canada, granting internal self-rule while leaving foreign affairs with Britain, and assigning federal responsibility over "Indians and Lands reserved for Indians."

Indian Act (1876)

A paternalistic federal statute that defines legal Aboriginal status and identity while regulating land, culture, and forms of government for registered Aboriginal peoples.

Reserves

Tracts of land set aside and held by the Crown for the use and benefit of Indigenous bands, which the bands do not legally own.

Residential Schools

Institutions operated by churches or the government from the 1880s until 1996 (made mandatory in 1920) that forcibly removed approximately 150,000 Indigenous children from their homes to enforce cultural and linguistic assimilation.

Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory Transfer (1870)

The purchase and transfer of Hudson's Bay Company territories to Canada on July 15, 1870, prompted by British concerns over US expansionism following the 1867 purchase of Alaska, leading to the creation of the North-West Territories and Manitoba.

Confederation of British Columbia (1871)

The entry of British Columbia into the Canadian confederation as a province on July 20, 1871.

Statute of Westminster (1931)

A British statute recognizing Canada as a self-governing dominion with full legislative autonomy alongside other Commonwealth nations, while the British Crown retained the authority to amend the Canadian Constitution.

Constitution Act (1982)

Legislation enacted under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Queen Elizabeth II that granted Canada complete constitutional sovereignty, reducing the British monarch's role to a purely ceremonial Head of State.