Canadian Citizenship Exam Flashcards

Aboriginal Peoples

• When Europeans arrived, they found Canada occupied by native peoples called Indians, due to initial explorer's mistaken belief they reached the East Indies.
• Native people lived off the land through:
  • Hunting and gathering.
  • Raising crops.
• Examples of Aboriginal groups:
  • Huron-Wendat (Great Lakes region): Farmers and hunters like the Iroquois.
  • Cree and Dene (Northwest): Hunter-gatherers.
  • Sioux: Nomadic, following the bison (buffalo) herd.
  • Inuit: Lived off Arctic wildlife.
  • West Coast natives: Preserved fish by drying and smoking.
• Warfare was common among Aboriginal groups due to competition for:
  • Land
  • Resources
  • Prestige
• The arrival of Europeans:
  • Traders
  • Missionaries
  • Soldiers
  • Colonists
• Significantly altered the native way of life.
• Large numbers of Aboriginals died of European diseases due to lack of immunity.
• Aboriginals and Europeans formed strong economic, religious, and military bonds in the first 200 years of coexistence, which laid the foundations of Canada.

The First Europeans

• Vikings from Iceland colonized Greenland and reached Labrador and Newfoundland 1,000 years ago.
• The remains of their settlement, l’Anse aux Meadows, are a World Heritage site.
• European exploration began in 1497 with John Cabot's expedition.
• John Cabot:
  • Drew the first map of Canada’s East Coast.

Exploring a River, Naming Canada

• 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.

Royal New France

• 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 Québec City.
• The colonists struggled against a harsh climate.
• Champlain allied the colony with the Algonquin, Montagnais, and Huron.
  • Historic enemies of the Iroquois: a confederation of five (later six) First Nations.
  • The Iroquois battled with the French settlements for a century.
• The French and the Iroquois made peace in 1701.
• The French and Aboriginal people collaborated in the vast fur-trade economy, driven by the demand for beaver pelts in Europe.
• 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.

Struggle for a Continent

• In 1670, King Charles II of England granted the Hudson’s Bay Company exclusive trading rights over the watershed draining into Hudson Bay.
• For the next 100 years, Hudson's Bay Company competed with Montreal-based traders.
• Voyageurs and coureurs des bois:
  • Skilled and courageous men who travelled by canoe.
  • 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 Québec City.
  • Marked the end of France’s empire in America.
  • Brigadier James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm were killed leading their troops in battle.

The Province of Quebec

• Following the war, Great Britain renamed the colony the “Province of Quebec.”
• The French-speaking Catholic people, known as habitants or Canadiens, strove to preserve their way of life in the English-speaking, Protestant-ruled British Empire.

A Tradition of Accommodation

• To better govern the French Roman Catholic majority, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act of 1774.
• The Quebec Act:
  • One of the constitutional foundations of Canada.
  • Accommodated the principles of British institutions to the reality of the province.
  • Allowed religious freedom for Catholics and permitted them to hold public office, a practice not then allowed in Britain.
  • Restored French civil law while maintaining British criminal law.

United Empire Loyalists

• In 1776, the 13 British colonies to the south of Quebec declared independence and formed the United States.
• North America was again divided by war.
• 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.
• The Loyalists came from Dutch, German, British, Scandinavian, Aboriginal and other origins and from Presbyterian, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Jewish, Quaker and Catholic religious backgrounds.
• About 3,000 black Loyalists, freedmen and slaves came north seeking a better life.
• 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.

The Beginnings of Democracy

• Democratic institutions developed gradually and peacefully.
• 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 Act also granted to the Canadas, for the first time, legislative assemblies elected by the people.
• The name Canada also became official at this time and has been used ever since.
• The Atlantic colonies and the two Canadas were known collectively as British North America.

Abolition of Slavery

• Slavery has existed all over the world, from Asia, Africa and the Middle East to the Americas.
• The first movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade emerged in the British Parliament in the late 1700s.
• 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.

A Growing Economy

• The first companies in Canada were formed during the French and British regimes and competed for the fur trade.
• The Hudson’s Bay Company, with French, British and Aboriginal employees, came to dominate the trade in the northwest from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and Fort Edmonton to Fort Langley (near Vancouver) and Fort Victoria—trading posts that later became cities.
• The first financial institutions opened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Montreal Stock Exchange opened in 1832.
• For centuries Canada’s economy was based mainly on farming and on exporting natural resources such as fur, fish and timber, transported by roads, lakes, rivers and canals.

The War of 1812: The Fight for Canada

• 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.
• Canadian volunteers and First Nations, including Shawnee led by Chief Tecumseh, supported British soldiers in Canada’s defence.
• Key events and figures:
  • Major-General Sir Isaac Brock captured Detroit but was killed while defending against an American attack at Queenston Heights, near Niagara Falls.
  • 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.
• 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 Québec 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.

Rebellions of 1837–38

• In the 1830s, reformers in Upper and Lower Canada believed that progress toward full democracy was too slow.
• Some believed Canada should adopt American republican values or even try to join the United States.
• Armed rebellions occurred in 1837–38 in the area outside Montreal and in Toronto, but 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.
• Lord Durham also said that the quickest way for the Canadiens to achieve progress was to assimilate into English-speaking Protestant culture; this demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of French Canadians, who sought to uphold the distinct identity of French Canada.

Responsible Government

• 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.
• This is the system that we have today: if the government loses a confidence vote in the assembly it must resign.
• La Fontaine, a champion of democracy and French language rights, became the first leader of a responsible government in the Canadas.

Confederation

• From 1864 to 1867, representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada, with British support, worked together to establish a new country.
• These men are known as the Fathers of Confederation.
• They created two levels of government: federal and provincial.
• The old Province of Canada was split into two new provinces: Ontario and Quebec, which, together with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, formed the new country called the Dominion of Canada.
• Each province would elect its own legislature and have control of such areas as education and health.
• The British Parliament passed the British North America Act in 1867.
• The Dominion of Canada was officially born on July 1, 1867.
• Until 1982, July 1 was celebrated as “Dominion Day” to commemorate the day that Canada became a self-governing Dominion. Today it is officially known as Canada Day.

Expansion of the Dominion

• 1867 – Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick
• 1870 – Manitoba, Northwest Territories
• 1871 – British Columbia
• 1873 – Prince Edward Island
• 1880 – Transfer of the Arctic Islands (to N.W.T.)
• 1898 – Yukon Territory
• 1905 – Alberta, Saskatchewan
• 1949 – Newfoundland and Labrador
• 1999 – Nunavut

Canada’s First Prime Minister

• In 1867, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, a Father of Confederation, became Canada’s first Prime Minister.
• Born in Scotland on January 11, 1815, he came to Upper Canada as a child.
• He was a lawyer in Kingston, Ontario, a gifted politician and a colourful personality.
• Parliament has recognized January 11 as Sir John A. Macdonald Day. His portrait is on the $10 bill.
• Sir George-Étienne Cartier was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec.

Challenge in the West

• When Canada took over the vast northwest region from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1869, the 12,000 Métis of the Red River were not consulted.
• In response, Louis Riel led an armed uprising and seized Fort Garry, the territorial capital.
• Ottawa sent soldiers to retake Fort Garry in 1870. Riel fled to the United States and Canada established a new province: Manitoba.
• Later, as Métis and Indian rights were again threatened by westward settlement, a second rebellion in 1885 in present-day Saskatchewan led to Riel’s trial and execution for high treason, a decision that was strongly opposed in Quebec.
• After the first Métis uprising, Prime Minister Macdonald established the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1873 to pacify the West and assist in negotiations with the Indians.
• Today, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP or “the Mounties”) are the national police force and one of Canada’s best-known symbols.

A Railway from Sea to Sea

• British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised to build a railway to the West Coast.
• On November 7, 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was completed.
• The project was financed by British and American investors and built by both European and Chinese labour.
• Afterwards the Chinese were subject to discrimination, including the Head Tax, a race-based entry fee.
• The Government of Canada apologized in 2006 for this discriminatory policy.

Moving Westward

• Canada’s economy grew and became more industrialized during the economic boom of the 1890s and early 1900s.
• One million British and one million Americans immigrated to Canada at this time.
• Sir Wilfrid Laurier became the first French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation and encouraged immigration to the West.
• The railway made it possible for immigrants to settle in the West before 1914 and develop a thriving agricultural sector.

The First World War

• Most Canadians were proud to be part of the British Empire.
• Over 7,000 volunteered to fight in the South African War (1899–1902), popularly known as the Boer War, and over 260 died.
• When Germany attacked Belgium and France in 1914 and Britain declared war, Ottawa formed the Canadian Expeditionary Force (later the Canadian Corps).
• More than 600,000 Canadians served in the war, most of them volunteers, out of a total population of eight million.
• The Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge in April 1917, with 10,000 killed or wounded, securing the Canadians’ reputation for valour as the “shock troops of the British Empire.” April 9 is celebrated as Vimy Day.
• Regrettably, from 1914 to 1920, Ottawa interned over 8,000 former Austro-Hungarian subjects, mainly Ukrainian men, as “enemy aliens” in 24 labour camps across Canada, even though Britain advised against the policy.
• In total 60,000 Canadians were killed and 170,000 wounded.

Women Get The Vote

• At the time of Confederation, the vote was limited to property-owning adult white males.
• The effort by women to achieve the right to vote is known as the women’s suffrage movement.
• Its founder in Canada was Dr. Emily Stowe, the first Canadian woman to practise medicine in Canada.
• In 1916, Manitoba became the first province to grant voting rights to women.
• In 1917, the federal government of Sir Robert Borden gave women the right to vote in federal elections.
• In 1918, most Canadian female citizens aged 21 and over were granted the right to vote in federal elections.
• In 1921 Agnes Macphail, a farmer and teacher, became the first woman MP.
• Due to the work of Thérèse Casgrain and others, Quebec granted women the vote in 1940.

Remembrance Day

• Canadians remember the sacrifices of our veterans and brave fallen in all wars in which Canadians took part, each year on November 11: Remembrance Day.
• Canadians wear the red poppy and observe a moment of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to honour the sacrifices of over a million brave men and women who have served, and the 110,000 who have given their lives.

Between the Wars

• After the First World War, the British Empire evolved into a free association of states known as the British Commonwealth of Nations.
• The “Roaring Twenties” were boom times, with prosperity for businesses and low unemployment.
• The stock market crash of 1929, however, led to the Great Depression or the “Dirty Thirties.” Unemployment reached 27% in 1933 and many businesses were wiped out.
• The Bank of Canada, a central bank to manage the money supply and bring stability to the financial system, was created in 1934.

The Second World War

• The Second World War began in 1939 when Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist (Nazi) dictator of Germany, invaded Poland and conquered much of Europe.
• Canada joined with its democratic allies in the fight to defeat tyranny by force of arms.
• More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders (Newfoundland was a separate British entity) served in the Second World War, out of a population of 11.5 million. This was a high proportion and of these, 44,000 were killed.
• The Canadians fought bravely and suffered losses in the unsuccessful defence of Hong Kong (1941) from attack by Imperial Japan, and in a failed raid on Nazi-controlled Dieppe on the coast of France (1942).
• The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) took part in the Battle of Britain and provided a high proportion of Commonwealth aircrew in bombers and fighter planes over Europe.
• The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) saw its finest hour in the Battle of the Atlantic, protecting convoys of merchant ships against German submarines. At the end of the Second World War, Canada had the third-largest navy in the world.
• The Canadian Army liberated the Netherlands in 1944–45 and helped force the German surrender of May 8, 1945, bringing to an end six years of war in Europe.
• Regrettably, the state of war and public opinion in B.C. led to the forcible relocation of Canadians of Japanese origin by the federal government and the sale of their property without compensation.
• The Government of Canada apologized in 1988 for wartime wrongs and compensated the victims.