Canadian Culture Notes

Culture Definitions and Interpretations

  • Initial interpretations of culture often equate it with the arts: live music, theatre, dance, handicrafts, films, books, and broadcasts that usually have a serious tone.
  • A more inclusive definition sees culture as entertainment: activities people pursue in their leisure time or ways they try to make their lives less monotonous. But this definition also raises the question of whether something has to emerge from formal settings to be considered culture.
  • Culture is a dynamic way of interpreting and interacting with the people, things, and ideas surrounding a society and representing the way that society experiences them.
  • Culture is continuously made and remade.

The Influence of History on Culture

  • Sociologist Max Weber suggested that a nation’s social structure is profoundly affected by its history.
  • What has happened in the past always shapes the present and the future.
  • It is often easier for a society to evolve gradually than to make radical breaks in deeply embedded features such as its value system, religious sensibility, or preferred pastimes.

Key Forces Influencing Canadian Culture:

  • Tradition
  • Belief
  • Taste
  • Convenience
  • Difference

Tradition

  • European colonists and immigrants brought their own ways of living, working, and worshipping.
  • In New France, the Catholic tradition influenced leisure time pursuits, with communities forming around local parish churches.
  • The need for survival and building permanent settlements in a harsh climate often brought community members together.
  • Sunday was a day for rest and socializing, with church attendance being necessary for maintaining social respectability and business success.
  • Colonial leaders considered themselves Europeans bringing a “civilized” tradition to an untamed land, which shaped their attitudes toward Indigenous peoples.
  • Traditional rivalries between European groups also affected the colonial experience, with the French and British allying with different Native groups.
  • After the fall of New France in the early 1760s, Britain was the strongest colonial power and influenced cultural progress according to British norms.
  • Political and educational systems followed British models, such as Canada's House of Commons and Senate and universities patterning their curricula after Oxford and Cambridge.
  • The British Broadcasting Corporation served as a model for Canada's agency to regulate radio.
  • Immigrants from Italy established networks of services to meet their needs, reflecting Canada’s potential for diversity.
  • People from Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean have contributed to Canadian culture by staging concerts, opening restaurants, and operating media outlets in various languages.

Belief

  • Beliefs explain the natural world and advise people how they should conduct themselves in social situations.
  • As Canada developed, cultural activities were governed by Christianity.
  • The Church was often considered the only bastion of “culture” in many settlements.
  • Church membership was key to social respectability, and a basic acquaintance with biblical stories was expected.
  • Becoming a member of the clergy was a professional opportunity for young men who had not come from wealthy families.
  • Leisure time activities connected to belief carried a stamp of social approval.
  • Evangelical Protestant denominations held camp meetings where people combined leisure and religion.
  • Organizations with a foundation in religious belief, such as the YMCA and WCTU, allowed people to associate with one another and showed that a religious sensibility could survive in a changing world.
  • Religious broadcasters adapted to new circumstances, making their way onto the airwaves.
  • Religion became one of many factors affecting the cultural scene as Canadians' heroes tended to be figures from the sports world or movie stars rather than religious figures.
  • Canadians continued to strive to answer spiritual questions, with “new age” philosophies and practices attracting numerous converts.
  • Belief has become an individual quest rather than a communal one.
  • Immigration of those whose religious background is not Christian has moved Canadian culture further from its earlier incarnations as one identified almost exclusively with Christianity.

Taste

  • Canadians categorize cultural activities, reflecting a modern drive for progress.
  • A sharp division exists between mass or “low” culture and “high” culture.
  • Before the advent of the 500-channel universe, taste in entertainment was not always so neatly subdivided, because there were fewer choices.
  • Developments during the twentieth century led Canadians to favor improving educational services and building facilities to house arts, sport, and community club activities.
  • Increased activity in high culture adds to the prestige of a town or city.
  • “Low” culture tends to be produced somewhere else (usually in the United States).
  • The federal government’s efforts in the cultural field have tended to encourage anything seen as edifying and/or nation-building.

Convenience

  • Culture became more of a consumable item in most Western societies.
  • Supplying Canadians with entertainment is a lucrative business.
  • People respond to novelty and convenience when making choices about their cultural surroundings.
  • With cultural vehicles so easy to access, smaller-scale entertainment and leisure have declined.
  • Self-interest goes hand in hand with convenience and is thus an active player in the development of a nation’s culture.
  • Conveniently scheduled broadcasts and screenings help people to consume when they can.
  • This trend toward narrowcasting has changed the face of television.
  • Many tend to frequent, buy, or consume entertainment that is branded.
  • The culture of convenience is not restricted to forms of entertainment or the media that carry them but shapes the actual physical spaces in which Canadians live and work.
  • Canadian cities have “suburbanized” since World War 11, with the downtown areas losing vitality.

Difference

  • The idea of what defines Canada is linked with real or imagined cultural differences between Canadians and other national groups, or even differences among Canadians themselves.
  • The most striking feature of the Canadian identity is its continual redefinition, using points of reference outside Canada.
  • Canadians reveal much about their own culture by describing what it is not.
  • A certain amount of energy goes into asserting differences between Canada and the United States.
  • Film and television productions frequently use locations or situations that are considered somehow distinctively Canadian.
  • Regional differences affect culture, such as Quebec's French linguistic tradition and the influence of the Catholic Church.
  • The province of Newfoundland and Labrador also possesses characteristics that set it apart.
  • The prairie provinces are home to significant First Nations populations.
  • A great variety of peoples from all over the world have come to live in Canada, especially in major urban areas.
  • Another current of difference running through Canadian culture today has to do with difference from the establishment.
  • Awareness and protest are a way of life for some Canadians, who work to inform others of local and global issues affecting all of us.

Conclusion

  • Tradition often lays the groundwork for culture, as it relies upon established patterns that people can recognize and perhaps alter over time.
  • Belief was certainly instrumental in choosing the day of rest and also made school prayers part of each child's educational day until recently.
  • Distinguishing worthwhile traditions from fads, or right from wrong, is also one of the critical elements in the development of taste.
  • The tradition of associating certain taste levels with certain levels of education or social status is a long-established one.
  • Often, our cultural choices are affected by how convenient it is to enjoy any of the options open to us.
  • Some Canadians oppose consumerism and relish the difference they perceive between their lives and the lives of those in the majority.

Time Line of Canadian Cultural Events and Policies

  • c. 1610-1759: New France stands as the most prominent colonial and cultural presence.
  • 1763: The Seven Years’ War ends and British domination begins.
  • 1837-1867: Canada inches toward becoming a “Dominion” with Confederation achieved in 1867.
  • 1896-1910: The first wave of immigrants from European nations hits Canada.
  • 1920: The first commercial radio broadcasting station in Canada begins operating.
  • 1949-1951: The Massey Commission investigates the availability and quality of cultural and educational opportunities in Canada.
  • 1950: Canada’s first shopping mall opens in West Vancouver.
  • 1952: Television broadcasts begin in Canada.
  • 1957: The Canada Council is formed.
  • 1958: Canadian content regulations are enacted.
  • 1970s and 1980s: Multiculturalism becomes government policy, and immigrants from Asia and Africa start to arrive in greater numbers.