Signing up enhances your TCE experience with the ability to save items to your personal reading list, and access the interactive map.
Create AccountThe following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.
On 4 April 1949, in the auditorium of the State Department on Washington's Constitution Avenue, the foreign ministers of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and eight other countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty.The backroom boy is in. So is the dark horse. As expected, Hugh Segal, the consummate Tory fixer, announced his run for the federal party leadership last week, followed in short order by Brian Pallister, the former Manitoba cabinet minister.
Global Affairs Canada (GAC) was originally founded as the Department of External Affairs in 1909 by Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The operations, mandate and title
of the department have evolved over the years. Although legally incorporated as the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, its public designation since 2015 has been Global Affairs Canada. The department is responsible for overseeing
Canada’s international engagement, including diplomatic relations, providing consular services, promoting international trade and international law, and leading Canada’s international development and humanitarian assistance.
The concept of “distinct society” distinguishes Quebec from English Canada.
This concept originated during the Quiet Revolution, at a time when French Canada came to no longer be seen as a single entity, but as a collection of regional francophone communities. It is found in the 1965 preliminary report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism shared by Laurendeau and Dunton. It was subsequently used on a number of occasions, notably during the negotiation of the Meech Lake Accord (1987–90). Today, the concept of “distinct society” continues to be used in debates regarding various political, social and cultural issues.
A sophisticated estate that incorporated the primary elements of English landscape style, Rideau Hall was thought to be in keeping with the stature and lifestyle of the Queen's representative in Canada.
Piracy ― the seizure and robbery of craft at sea or in the air ― has only had a small role in Canada's history.
The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.
Eight statesmen, scores of aides, hundreds of press, and thousands of security personnel will all descend on Kananaskis, Alberta, in late June 2002. For the fourth time since 1976, but the first time in Western Canada, a Canadian prime minister will be hosting the G-8 leaders summit.This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on May 15, 2006. Partner content is not updated.
Canada’s first national internment operations took place during the First World War, between 1914 and 1920. More than 8,500 men, along with some women and children, were interned by the Canadian government, which acted under the authority of the War Measures Act. Most internees were recent immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman empires, and mainly from the western Ukrainian regions of Galicia and Bukovyna. Some were Canadian-born or naturalized British subjects. They were held in 24 receiving stations and internment camps across the country — from Nanaimo, BC, to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Many were used as labour in the country’s frontier wilderness. Personal wealth and property were confiscated and much of it was never returned.
Under the Constitution, the federal government has power, through immigration laws, to remove (or deport) foreign-born people from the country. The conditions for deportation have changed over the years, and deportation has been used for political as well as security purposes. Canadian deportation policy – often controversial – provides a window into the concerns of the state over the course of its history.
Long ago, Anne McLellan learned to accept a daunting task with enthusiasm and a sense of duty. Growing up on her parents' dairy and chicken farm in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, she helped gather the eggs produced by the family's flock of hens. All 17,000 of them.
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is an independent public organization that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications systems in Canada.
Among political strategists, it is sometimes known as "the barbecue factor": the manner in which a once-hot candidate ends up cooked on election day. The principal example, one that many of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's strategists recall with a shudder, is former Ontario Liberal leader Lyn McLeod.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on July 14, 1997. Partner content is not updated.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If only Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had not jumped at U.S. President George Bushs request to send Canadian troops to Somalia in 1992.Brian Mulroney can't stop laughing. Sunk into the well-upholstered couch in his eleventh-floor, downtown Montreal law office, he is trying to read out loud from a glossy report - but keeps breaking into guffaws.
During his teenage years, Preston Manning spent many early daylight hours milking cows and performing other chores at the dairy farm near Edmonton owned by his father, Ernest, then the Social Credit premier of Alberta.
Canada has a long tradition of an active and vocal peace movement. The Mennonites and Quakers, guided by a philosophy of nonviolence, have consistently spoken out against war and militarism.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on November 22, 1999. Partner content is not updated.
By the Queen's Robing Room inside the Palace of Westminster, there is a small, sedate chamber they call the Norman Porch. It is populated entirely with busts of past luminaries of the House of Lords, each of whom has served as British prime minister.The Senate is the Upper House of Canada’s Parliament. Its 105 members are appointed and hold their seats until age 75. The Senate’s purpose is to consider and revise legislation; investigate national issues; and most crucially according to the Constitution, give the regions of Canada an equal voice in Parliament. The Senate is a controversial institution. It has long been regarded by many Canadians as a place of unfair patronage and privilege. An unresolved debate continues about whether it should be reformed into an elected body accountable to the voters, or abolished.
